Last year was an especially exciting year for particle physics with the discovery of a 126-GeV particle that appears to be the long-sought Higgs boson. This event is likely to be the most important discovery in decades: the observation of a new kind of particle that signals the mechanism for creating mass in the universe. […]
Flexibility in the ILC design
Director’s Corner 24 June 2010 Ewan Paterson Flexibility in the ILC design Today’s issue features a Director’s Corner by Ewan Paterson, member of the Global Design Effort Executive Committee.In a new large accelerator complex which will take years to get approved and constructed, one must maintain some degree of flexibility in its design as many […]
Keeping ILC costs under control
Director’s Corner 13 May 2010 Barry Barish Keeping ILC costs under control The cost of the project "next-generation linear collider" ILC has been a major issue, ever since we began our ILC design work in 2005. The scale of the project and the costs of the ILC are roughly equivalent to the largest present-day science […]
Path forward following the AAP Review
Director’s Corner 18 March 2010 Barry Barish Path forward following the AAP ReviewI have been preaching about the importance of having in-depth critical technical reviews of our work for some time, and used those arguments to motivate the creation of a new review mechanism for the Global Design Effort R&D programme based on an “internal” […]
Accelerator Advisory Panel meeting in snowy Oxford
Director’s Corner 21 January 2010 Barry Barish Accelerator Advisory Panel meeting in snowy Oxford Last week I introduced a set of ILC baseline changes, the "SB2009 Proposal Document," proposed through the Global Design Effort project managers. I also mentioned that the first step in evaluating this proposal was an in-depth review held in Oxford, UK, […]
Optimising the value of the ILC
Research Director’s Report21 January 2010 Jim Brau Optimising the value of the ILCThis month’s Research Director’s Report was written by Jim Brau, co-chair of the Worldwide Study and regional detector contact for the Americas. Several years ago (in 2003), the parameters for the linear collider were defined by the ILCSC Parameters Committee chaired by Rolf […]
Evolving the ILC baseline
Director’s Corner 14 January 2010 Barry Barish Evolving the ILC baseline Over the past year, the ILC project managers have led a focussed effort to assess the ILC baseline configuration that is documented in the Reference Design Report (RDR) and as a result have developed a set of proposed baseline changes that are aimed at […]
Detector activities in the new stage
Research Director’s Report17 December 2009 Sakue Yamada Detector activities in the new stageThe physics and detector activity for the ILC entered into a new stage after the validation of the Letters of Intent (LOIs) and following discussions during the American Linear Collider Physics Group (ALCPG) workshop in Albuquerque, US. Close to the turn of the […]
The ILC Project Advisory Committee considers proposed ILC baseline revisions
Director’s Corner 10 December 2009 Barry Barish The ILC Project Advisory Committee considers proposed ILC baseline revisions Much of our work this year has been focussed on assessing the ILC Reference Design Report (RDR) produced in 2007, in order to determine what changes to the RDR baseline to make for the technical design effort that […]