For the first time, a large-scale calorimeter prototype for the ILC, fully equipped with embedded power-pulsed electronics, successfully passed a test beam at CERN a few weeks ago. A prototype of more than one cubic metre in size of CALICE’s Semi-Digital Hadronic Calorimeter successfully recorded and tracked 1 million particles from CERN’s SPS accelerator beam […]
The science of showers
PhD student Christian Soldner studies time, tungsten and scintillators
Good timing is a virtue. Just as comedians have to wait for just the right moment to deliver their punch line, linear collider physicists need to know when to make cuts. These cuts separate phenomena called particle showers from each other, making it possible for the physicists to tell which reaction originated from which collision. […]
The impact of ILC detector R&D
This month's Research Director's Report was written by Marcel Demarteau, chair and convener of the ILC Detector Common Task Group
Although the actual construction date of the ILC accelerator and its detectors is very uncertain, the impact of the R&D for ILC detectors is very real. We are so immersed in our day-to-day activities, in the analysis of physics and test beam data, in our struggles to obtain funding, that we tend to overlook the […]
Linear collider technology in your body
New FP-7-health programme brings together hospitals and particle physics
A device used the linear collider’s hadronic calorimeter could soon help detect cancer. It would also be the central part of what is likely going to be the world’s smallest calorimeter – so tiny that it can fit on the tip of an endoscope to be inserted into a person’s stomach. Since January 2011, a […]
CALICE gathers forces to design the calorimeters of the future
The CALICE (Calorimeter for Linear Collider Experiment) collaboration is growing and anticipating the future of ILC calorimeters. The members not only prepare test-beams for the current generation of calorimeter prototypes, but they also prepare the future design of ILC sub-detectors. A record number of 72 CALICE members reviewed and discussed all these aspects two weeks […]