The Research and Development Board of the International Linear Collider

Columbia University, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

The International Linear Collider (ILC) is a proposed new electron-positron collider. Together with the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, it would allow physicists to explore energy regions beyond the reach of today's accelerators. At these energies, researchers anticipate significant discoveries that will lead to a radically new understanding of what the universe is made of and how it works. The nature of the ILC's electron-positron collisions would give it the capability to answer compelling questions that discoveries at the LHC will raise, from the identity of dark matter to the existence of extra dimensions. In the ILC's design, two facing linear accelerators, each 20 kilometers long, hurl beams of electrons and positrons toward each other at nearly the speed of light. In the current design, each beam contains ten billion electrons or positrons compressed to a minuscule three-nanometer thickness. As the particles speed down the collider, superconducting accelerating cavities give them more and more energy. They meet in an intense crossfire of collisions. The energy of the ILC's beam can be adjusted to home in on processes of interest. The ILC Global Design Effort (GDE) will establish the final configuration of the ILC, focusing the efforts of hundreds of accelerator scientists and particle physicists in North America, Europe and Asia. The ILC will be designed, funded, managed and operated as a fully international scientific project. An international effort will define the administrative and financial model for the project. The PI of this proposal has been asked to join the GDE as Chair of the global Research and Development Board (RDB), with the tasks of overseeing of the Global R&D effort, In this role e will report to the GDE Director, and work closely with the three Regional Directors, who will provide coordination among the numerous institutions in their region. This proposal requests support for the RDB Chair. Through many workshops and evaluations, the ILC has emerged as the highest priority of the U.S. Particle Physics Community.