One of the most important goals of the Global Design Effort has been to demonstrate that high-gradient cavities can be reliably produced in industry. We established two gradient goals: to produce cavities qualified at 35 Megavolts per metre (MV/m) in vertical tests and to demonstrate that an average gradient of 31.5 MV/m is achievable for […]
Accelerating news
The third issue of the newsletter Accelerating News brings summaries of project plans, new ideas and progress on EU-funded projects. From the editors: This summer saw CERN announce to a worldwide audience the discovery of a Higgs-like boson, so this issue takes a look at the machine behind the discovery, the LHC, as well as […]
A crucial technical review
Scientific oversight for the ILC Global Design Effort (GDE) is provided by the International Linear Collider Steering Committee (ILCSC), a subcommittee of the International Committee for Future Accelerators (ICFA). The ILCSC has appointed a panel of accelerator experts to review and monitor the technical progress of the GDE, as well as that of the experimental […]
More knobs, more knowledge
Long-bunch-train ILC studies are back at FLASH
Accelerator theory and operating experience are all well and good. But if you’re planning and researching the next-generation particle accelerator, you sometimes need to crank things to their limits in order to get a step further. The 9-mA team has descended again on DESY’s FLASH accelerator in March to share control room space with the DESY […]
SLAC P2 Marx ramps up reliability
Last month scientists at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, US, ran tests on their latest power generator prototype. It met ILC specifications, delivering 140 amps of current at 120 kilovolts. But the real test, the test of endurance, is still thousands of hours of run time away. Researchers are developing the SLAC P2 Marx modulator, the […]
The capability for producing niobium sheets
The International Linear Collider will need about 16,000 superconducting radiofrequency cavities, devices that accelerate electrons and their antiparticles, positrons, along microwaves to near speed of light. These cavities are made out of pure niobium, which means the ILC community needs 500 tonnes of high-purity niobium processed into nice, smooth sheets. In the industrial session held […]
The multiplying effects of an accelerator economy
Niowave in Lansing, US is bringing superconducting cavities to the larger science community
On the homepage of a US-based company website is a picture that, at first glance, looks like an advertisement for a major household appliance. A yellow starburst graphic assures you that delivery time is quick. A text-boxed baseline price is presented in glowing type. And at the centre is the touted item: an ILC/TESLA-type accelerator […]
All aboard the long bunch train
Collaborators for the ILC and for DESY’s FLASH facility learn from long bunch train studies at a recent workshop
For all the complicated engineering and hulking structures involved in operating particle accelerators, it’s the tiny, invisible particle beam at the centre of everything that is the machine’s reason for being. A probe for burrowing into subatomic places or a light to shine on molecular forms, the beam is science’s exploratory tool for the universe’s […]
I have a dream…
This week's issue features a Director's Corner from Jean-Pierre Delahaye, member of the GDE Executive Committee and CLIC study leader.
As a newcomer to the Global Design Effort Executive Committee nearly two years ago, I was invited to write for ILC NewsLine’s Director’s corner, which I dedicated to one of my favorite subject: “The Beauty of Collaborations”. I would like to take this new opportunity to address a complementary subject with a plea for a […]
A new generation of undulator magnets
Lately, scientific communities are in need of higher-energy light particles. To do this, scientists are extending the existing technology of undulator magnets, or undulators. The device uses magnets to wiggle a particle beam into giving up light, which can then be used for a whole host of scientific applications. “Undulators are specialised beasts,” said Elizabeth […]