Current Director's Corner archive
16 December 2010 - Evolving the ILC baseline - single main linac tunnel Today, I describe the second of the proposed change actions, which has been stated as follows: "We propose to change the main linac tunnel configuration to one with only a single, accelerator-enclosure tunnel, thereby eliminating the support equipment tunnel proposed in the Reference Design. We propose to develop and include in the baseline two novel High-Level RF power source and distribution schemes ("KCS" and "DRFS") that are better suited to a single-tunnel solution than the scheme proposed in the RDR. A fall-back to the RDR HLRF Technology can be adopted should the R&D on KCS or DRFS not be considered successful." -- Barry Barish
9 December 2010 - Evolving the ILC baseline - main linac operating gradient Today, I will describe the first of those proposed change actions completed in recent weeks. [...] The proposal that I have approved sets the average operating gradient of 31.5 MV/m for operation of the main linac cryomodules, with a spread of up to 20 percent. We believe these parameters are realistic and achievable, but represent challenging goals. -- Barry Barish
2 December 2010 - Evolving the ILC baseline I have officially approved two major changes in the ILC baseline configuration for the next phase of our R&D and design work. [...] Today, I discuss the procedure we have followed to evaluate and decide on these changes. -- Barry Barish
24 November 2010 - The ILC-CLIC collaboration and technological challenges Our current mutual understanding of ILC-CLIC status, is significantly better than that of 2001, owing to the on-going collaboration. -- Kaoru Yokoya
18 November 2010 - Linear Collider Accelerator School Our fifth Linear Collider Accelerator School, and the first one sponsored jointly by ILC and CLIC, was held there from 25 October to 5 November 2010. -- Barry Barish
11 November 2010 - Electron-Cloud physics [...] For the ILC, electron cloud effects can defocus the positron beam in the damping rings, thereby degrading the ability to create a low-emittance beam, a key in creating the required very small final beam spot. -- Barry Barish
4 November 2010 - Cavity gradient milestone achieved One of our most visible and important ILC R&D short-term milestones has been to demonstrate production of ILC superconducting radio frequency cavities with gradient of greater than or equal to 35 megavolts per metre (MV/m) and Q0 = 8x10^9 and 50 percent production yield. [...] Today I announce the successful achievement of that important 2010 milestone. -- Barry Barish
28 October 2010 - The first joint ILC and CLIC workshop, IWLC10 in Geneva This year, the International Workshop on Linear Colliders (IWLC2010), organised by the European Committee for Future Accelerators (ECFA), was noteworthy in that it was the first joint workshop for both ILC and CLIC... -- Peter Garbincius
21 October 2010 - The convergence of astrophysics and particle physics [...] The scope of particle physics has grown in recent years to include what we commonly call particle astrophysics, where some of the most important particle physics questions are also of high importance for astrophysics. -- Barry Barish
14 September 2010 - Novosibirsk revisited - integrating former weapons scientists [...] The ISTC was established by international agreement in November 1992 as a nonproliferation programme. The mandate is to help develop alternative professional careers for the scientists, engineers and technicians from the former Soviet Union who used to develop weapons. High-energy physics has been both a beneficiary and a partner in this programme. -- Barry Barish
7 October 2010 - Novosibirsk I had the interesting experience recently of spending four days at a meeting in Novosibirsk, Russia... at the Budker Institute for Nuclear Physics (BINP), a famous laboratory credited with many of the innovations in modern particle accelerators. -- Barry Barish
30 September 2010 - The ILC in a mountainous region There is an encouraging possibility that Japan will bid to host the ILC. Earlier this month, at the autumn meeting of the Physical Society of Japan held at the Kyushu Institute of Technology, representatives of the Japanese ILC community announced two potential ILC sites. -- Marc Ross
23 September 2010 - Beyond the Technical Design Report The baseline configuration for the TDR is being decided over the coming months and we are on track to complete and document the technical design by the end of 2012. ... What will happen then? -- Barry Barish
16 September 2010 - IWLC2010 - International Workshop on Linear Colliders 2010 This week I want to preview the coming ECFA-CLIC-ILC joint meeting that will be held from 18 October through 22 October 2010 at CERN and the International Conference Centre Geneva, Switzerland. -- Barry Barish
9 September 2010 - Developing an ILC Project Implementation Plan [...] Another important step is to develop a Project Implementation Plan (PIP) as a way to outline the options, models and plans for realising the ILC as a project. -- Barry Barish
2 September 2010 - ILC RD plan updated [...] For the technical part, especially with the limited resources we have available, we have defined a prioritised R&D programme, and a design effort focused on cost, performance and risk optimisation. This programme is main subject matter of the newly released R&D Plan. -- Barry Barish
26 August 2010 - Discussing change at the Baseline Assessment Workshops In cooperation with the KEK Linear Collider Office, the ILC GDE Project Managers are organising the first in a series of Baseline Assessment Workshops. -- Akira Yamamoto
19 August 2010 - ICHEP addresses the future of high-energy physics [...] Whatever new large projects will be in our future, we are building a strategy and timing for decisions, where the scientific results and imperatives can determine our choices. -- Barry Barish
12 August 2010 - ICHEP opens the LHC era [...] The ICHEP conference broadly covered the field of high-energy physics from new limits on the search for the Higgs from the Tevatron to reviews of future technology and projects. -- Barry Barish
5 August 2010 - Students admitted to the fifth Linear Collider accelerator school We have selected 70 highly qualified students from an increased pool of 276 applications for the 2010 school. -- Barry Barish
29 July 2010 - Paris and politics By governance we mean all the disparate elements required to found a convincing ILC laboratory organisation, with clear aims, transparent and accountable management and supportive governments and funding agencies. It forms an essential part of the overall "Project Implementation Plan"... -- Brian Foster
22 July 2010 - An animated ILC Today, we release our first ILC animation, which has been created by Mamoru Horiuchi (aka Rey.Hori) from Japan. -- Barry Barish
15 July 2010 - Japan to provide funds towards the Super KEKB upgrade [...] MEXT, the Japanese ministry that supports high-energy physics at KEK, announced that it will appropriate 10 billion yen (around 110 million dollars) towards the upgrade of KEKB over the three years starting this fiscal year. -- Barry Barish
8 July 2010 - The laser and the next 50 years [...] it is clear that the new laser developments will continue to have an impact on our lives in new and exciting ways, both by opening up new scientific opportunities and in creating new applications to our everyday lives. -- Barry Barish
1 July 2010 - Celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the laser [...] The development of the laser from a fundamental physics discovery to a multibillion-dollar industry and its pervasive and unforeseen impacts on how we live, make a very powerful case for the value of basic research. -- By Barry Barish
24 June 2010 - Flexibility in the ILC design 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 things can change before a construction start. -- By Ewan Paterson
17 June 2010 - Superconducting RF cavity industrialisation Producing high gradient superconducting radiofrequency (SCRF) cavities that meet our demanding performance goals, are affordable and can be produced by industry represents one of the largest challenges on the way to making a solid project proposal for the ILC. [...] Developing a worldwide capability to produce our cavities in industry represents an enormous challenge - one we need to address now. -- Barry Barish
10 June 2010 - The latest ILC technical review [...] Today, I will report on the latest meeting of the Project Advisory Committee (PAC) that reviews both the accelerator and detector technical efforts and reports to the International Linear Collider Steering Committee (ILCSC). This recent meeting was particularly important, because at this time we are dealing with differing opinions regarding the proposed baseline changes for the ILC technical design. -- Barry Barish
3 June 2010 - Attracting women into science [...] I was pleased that the 2010 National Science Board's Public Service Award was given to the "Expanding Your Horizons Network," an organisation that is dedicated to educating young school girls about careers in math, science and engineering. I was doubly pleased that one of our own ILC Global Design Effort members, Cherrill Spencer, who has served the network for so many years, was part of the team that came to Washington DC to receive this award. -- Barry Barish
27 May 2010 - Baseline Assessment Workshops [...] The first BAW will be held at KEK from 7-10 September 2010, and the second at SLAC from 18-21 January 2011. I am very much encouraging active participation from the detector community and by some of our advisory committee members both in the preparations leading up to these workshops and at the workshops, themselves. --Barry Barish
20 May 2010 - International Linear Collider Steering Committee confronts ILC R-D support issues [...] The most recent meeting of the ILCSC, chaired by Jon Bagger, was held on 25 February 2010 at Brookhaven National Laboratory, a day before the meeting of ICFA. This meant that many of the major laboratory directors could take part in the ILCSC meeting, and since much of the ILC R&D programme is carried out through these laboratories, this meeting presented the opportunity to have meaningful and frank discussions of the support and resources needed to achieve the high-priority ILC R&D goals, both for the ILC accelerator and detector efforts. --Barry Barish
13 May 2010 - 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 projects, like the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The good news is that we believe the ILC will not cost more than these megascience projects, and they have actually been built or are being built. The bad news is that the present world economic situation and government priorities are such that it will be extremely difficult to convince governments to make yet another large investment in a fundamental science project of such a large scale. Nevertheless, fundamental science must go on... -- Barry Barish
6 May 2010 - Cost and cost growth in science megaprojects [...] The trend towards larger science seems inevitable and we scientists need to make sure such facilities are done cost effectively, if we expect society to support us. This means we must very carefully choose which projects to develop, so that we will produce the best science. --Barry Barish
29 April 2010 - ATF2 enters the nanometre world The ATF2 collaboration has recently succeeded to obtain vertical beam size of less than one micrometre and consequently has now entered into the nanometre world in the final focus system. In this corner, I will describe what is AFT2 and how we reached this challenging beam size. -- Toshiaki Tauchi
22 April 2010 - ILC-CLIC general issues group At the Beijing meeting, Philippe Lebrun gave a report to the Global Design Effort Executive Committee of the initial work of the new "ILC-CLIC general issues group." [...] The group has reviewed its mandate, surveyed the progress of the joint ILC-CLIC working groups and planned its future activities. -- Barry Barish
15 April 2010 - Coming up - the fifth International Accelerator School on Linear Colliders One of the primary missions of the ILC Global Design Effort is to help in the training of the next generation of accelerator physicists. To achieve that end, we have been a sponsor and we supplied many of the lecturers at a series of schools that began four years ago. [...] This year's school will focus on subjects in accelerator physics related to TeV-scale linear colliders, including the ILC, CLIC and the muon collider. -- Barry Barish
8 April 2010 - Celebrating first 7-TeV collisions at the LHC This past week marked the beginning of a new era for particle physics with the much publicised achievement of establishing the first 7-TeV collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). [...] We should soon begin to have a glimpse of Terascale physics from searches for the origin of mass to looking for evidence of a new symmetry in nature that could even explain the dark matter. Even more intriguing is the real possibility for totally unexpected surprises that are awaiting us. We are looking to LHC science to establish what kind of lepton collider will be needed to best exploit the energy frontier in the longer term. -- Barry Barish
1 April 2010 - Physics at the Beijing Linear Collider Workshop [...] ILC physics is great, as long as the new particles are within range, enabling us to reconstruct theory based on data. What energy is enough? LHC will tell us, so look forward! We need to be ready once there is new physics. -- Barry Barish
25 March 2010 - Here is to Beijing - the Great Wall - and windowless seminar rooms [...] As a truly global project, the ILC remains the dream of hundreds of physicists around the globe. Many of them will be joining me in Beijing for the workshop, to discuss the impressive technical progress we are making. -- Nick Walker
18 March 2010 - Path forward following the AAP Review [...] we have sought a more critical technical review process. We now have had such a review and it has made us reconsider some of our plans as a result. We will be interacting with the AAP in the coming months regarding the detailed recommendations in their report. -- Barry Barish
11 March 2010 - FALC meets in Mumbai The most recent meeting of the Funding Agencies for Large Colliders (FALC) was held at the Tata Institute for Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Mumbai, India from 17 to 18 January. FALC reviewed the major high-energy programmes worldwide during this meeting, as well as hearing reports on the status and plans for the International Linear Collider. -- Barry Barish
4 March 2010 - Particle Physics for biologists and beyond [...] I am addressing another important area of communication for the ILC and particle physics more generally: the need to engage our scientist colleagues in other areas of science ranging from biology to astronomy. -- Barry Barish
25 February 2010 - A trip to Washington Mike Harrison describes a recent trip to Washington to talk to the US Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP); the home of the Presidential Science Advisor. -- Mike Harrison
18 February 2010 - Change has come to linearcollider.org Welcome to the new linearcollider.org! [...] We are proud to present the result that you see today as the new www.linearcollider.org website. -- Maura Barone and Barry Barish
11 February 2010 - US Department of Energy ILC R-D funding request for fiscal year 2011 [...] I am pleased to announce that the DOE is continuing to support this revised programme and that a $35-million ILC R&D budget has been included in the President's US budget request announced last week. -- Barry Barish
4 February 2010 - Formalising and extending the ILC-CLIC collaboration [...] The ILC-CLIC collaborative work has become an important element in our activities. In addition to the technical interchange and joint work through seven working groups, we held a Global Design Effort Executive Committee meeting at CERN last June and will organise a large joint workshop next autumn. Our collaborative activities have reached a level where it has become important to formalise the arrangement, which has now been achieved through a joint statement. -- Barry Barish
28 January 2010 - S1 global started moving S0, S1, and S2 - these are the "code names" for superconducting accelerating system R&D for the International Linear Collider. -- Kaoru Yokoya
21 January 2010 - Accelerator Advisory Panel meeting in snowy Oxford The first step in evaluating the SB2009 proposal was an in-depth review held in Oxford, UK, just after the New Year. The Acceleration Advisory Panel (AAP) is a panel of technical and project experts that advises me on technical, R&D and management issues. It will be a couple of more weeks before I receive their detailed report, but in anticipation, I briefly report some highlights based on their comments to me and their presentation at the closeout session. -- Barry Barish
14 January 2010 - 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 reducing costs and improve the technical design. -- Barry Barish
7 January 2010 - Reflections on the New Year As we enter the New Year, it is a good time to review and reflect on our accomplishments during 2009, as well as the present status and prospects for the ILC. I wish I could boldly state that we have made big strides towards making the ILC a reality over the past year, but in reality it was a mixed year. -- Barry Barish