ILC moving from design to reality
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A five-volume report containing the blueprint for a future particle physics project, the International Linear Collider [ILC], was published on 12 June 2013. In three consecutive ceremonies in Asia, Europe and the Americas, the authors of the Technical Design Report [TDR] for the ILC officially handed it over to the international oversight board for projects in particle physics, the International Committee for Future Accelerators [ICFA]. The ILC TDR presents the latest, most technologically advanced and most thoroughly scrutinised design for the ILC, and its publication implies that physicists now have a machine that they know they can build. “The Technical Design Report basically says that we are ready to go ahead,” said Barry Barish, Director of the ILC’s Global Design Effort.
The ILC is a worldwide undertaking to build an electron-positron collider to complement the Large Hadron Collider [LHC] at CERN. The ILC will make possible precision studies of the underlying physics of the Higgs, as well as provide a different way of discovering the physics phenomena at this new energy regime.
The global handover ceremony started in Tokyo, Japan, continued at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, and ended at Fermilab, Chicago, in the United States. At each stage of this global event, a full set of the report was handed over. During the Asian event in Tokyo, the TDR was handed over by Sachio Komamiya, Chair of the Linear Collider Board, to Lyn Evans, Director of the Linear Collider Collaboration. “The TDR is an impressive piece of work that shows maturity, scrutiny and boldness. The International Linear Collider should be next on the agenda for global particle physics,” said Evans, who is now leading the global effort to make the ILC reality.
During the European event, the report was handed over, by European ILC Regional Director Brian Foster to Rolf Heuer, member of ICFA, and Barry Barish passed it to ICFA Chair Pier Oddone in the US event. When the celebration ended in one time zone, it started in the next one, and the three regions gave each other a virtual handshake via videoconference.
Scientists and guests also celebrated the achievement of finalizing the TDR through symposia, public events, and receptions. In Tokyo, representatives from China, India, Korea and Japan gave congratulatory speeches. Yi Fang Wang, director of China’s Institute for High Energy Physics [IHEP] and Amit Roy, director of the Inter-University Accelerator Centre, India, congratulated the global ILC team on this accomplishment via videconference, and Dong-Chul Son, professor at the Kyungpook National University, Korea, gave a speech at the venue. Satoru Yamashita, Chair of the ILC strategy council, represented the Japanese ILC community and addressed the audience with the words “Let’s realise the ILC together.”
The Global Design Effort has completed its mandate to produce a technical design for the ILC, and this event marked the official passing of the baton from GDE to LCC. “I am confident that LCC will be able to take the next big step towards making the linear collider a reality. All we need is a clear political statement, and there are strong signs from Japan that it could bid to host the project,” said Barish.
Now, with strong support from Europe and encouraging statement from the US, the ILC is getting closer to becoming reality.
