Even if the ILC can’t solve the remaining riddles of particle physics yet, its development already does some good. The latest example: two labs at DESY where components for the ILC are developed and tested helped to improve physics classes at German high schools. Ten German teachers participated in the first teacher training programme about […]
Practi-Cal
Better together: two technological prototypes of the high-granularity calorimeters for a future ILC detector have been tested together with particle beams at CERN in a combined mode. The Semi-Digital Hadronic CALorimeter (SDHCAL) prototype with its 48 layers and the Silicon Electromagnetic CALorimeter (SiECAL) with its 10 units, both part of the CALICE collaboration, spent two […]
Back in the beam
After nearly a year of campaign and some 10 weeks of data taking in various beams at CERN and at DESY, the detector layers, absorbers, support structures and electronics of several calorimeter prototypes for a future ILC detector are back in crates and on their way to DESY and other labs in Germany, Japan and the […]
Calorimeters don’t take holidays
Summer breaks don’t exist for detector prototypes. For almost three weeks in July – around the time that a new temperature record of 39.7 degrees was measured in Geneva – the team working on the technological prototype of a potential hadronic calorimeter for the ILD detector at the ILC took data at the Super Proton […]
InGrids on the rise
The InGrid chip is an ingenious little thing. It is essentially a Timepix chip equipped with 256×256 pixels. On top of these sits a grid that features a hole over each pixel. Within the 50-µm gap, a strong electric field is generated. This means that electrons flying through one of those holes feel this field and are […]
Summer students reunite at test beam
Many physicists have extremely fond memories of their time as a summer student at labs like DESY in Germany or CERN in Switzerland. Some even describe it as pivotal because they decided to choose particle physics as their area of specialisation after being immersed in a real research environment, surrounded by people with the same […]
Calorimeters enjoy beam time
There are prototypes and there are prototypes. Some are needed to verify that a chosen detection technology actually works, some help scientists test one technology against another, some help them design sturdy detector infrastructure with little material budget, working power supply and cooling, while others set out to prove that it is possible to have […]
Common ground in ILC and CLIC detector concepts
The Compact Linear Collider and International Linear Collider will accelerate particles and create collisions in different ways. Nonetheless, the detector concepts under development share many commonalities. CERN physicist Dominik Dannheim explains that CLIC detector plans are adaptations of the ILC detector designs with a few select modifications. “When we started several years ago, we did […]
Pixel party
Marcel Vos (IFIC Valencia, Spain), with help from Igor Rubinsky and Hanno Perrey (DESY, Germany), Carlos Marinas and Theresa Obermann (Bonn University, Germany), and David Cussans (Bristol University, UK)
Three detector R&D collaborations developing the next generation of pixel detectors tested their systems in a combined test beam. The goal is to build a beam telescope that will bring users not only precise information about where particles went, but also when they passed through the device under test – a much-needed novelty for many […]
On the way to SiD: testing a novel calorimeter
SLAC prepares for a test beam of an electromagnetic calorimeter specific to the proposed SiD detector
Researchers are taking a step towards the realisation of the International Linear Collider’s (ILC) SiD detector with a test beam of a SiD-specific electromagnetic calorimeter (ECAL) planned for this month at SLAC. This initial test beam could actually be considered a “test” test beam, as this run will utilise a partial calorimeter. Researchers involved in […]