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news release:
ICFA Releases GDE Reference Design Report for
the International Linear Collider
Beijing, China, 8 February 2007: The International Committee for Future
Accelerators (ICFA) today announced the release of the Reference Design Report (RDR)
for the International Linear Collider (ILC),
a proposed future particle accelerator.
Hurling some 10 billion electrons and their anti-particles, positrons, toward
each other at nearly the speed of light, beams in the ILC will collide 14,000
times every second at extremely high energies - 500 billion-electronvolts (GeV).
These spectacular collisions create an array of new particles that will answer
some of the most fundamental questions about the nature of the universe, such as
the origin of mass, dark matter, dark energy, extra dimensions and beyond. The
current 31-kilometre design allows for an upgrade to a 50-kilometre, 1 trillion-electronvolt
(TeV) machine during the second stage of the project. Organised by the Global
Design Effort (GDE), a team of more than 60 scientists, the ILC is an
international endeavour that brings together more than 1000 scientists and
engineers from more than 100 universities and laboratories in over two dozen
countries.
Together with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), scheduled to start operating in
2007, scientists believe that the ILC will answer some of science's greatest
remaining questions about the nature of the universe. With its high energy
electron-positron collisions that provide very precise data, the ILC will give
scientists the information they need to understand the Higgs mechanism, examine
supersymmetric particles, probe dark matter candidates and possibly find a way
to reunite laws of nature by discovering new forces. The scientific importance
of both the LHC and the ILC have been stressed by such influential reports as
"Revealing the Hidden Nature of Space and Time: Charting the Course for
Elementary Particle Physics" and "The European Strategy for Particle Physics."
The reference design provides the first detailed technical snapshot of the
next-generation machine, defining in detail the technical parameters and
components that make up each section of the 31-kilometre long accelerator. This
report provides guidance for the worldwide R&D programme, motivates
international industrial studies and serves as the basis for the final
engineering design needed to make an official project proposal later this
decade.
"With the publication of the ILC's Reference Design Report, the project has
reached another major milestone," said Albrecht Wagner, chair of the
International Committee for Future Accelerators and Director General of DESY.
"The Report demonstrates convincingly the readiness for building the ILC in the
near future. ICFA would like to congratulate the Global Design Effort and all
scientists involved in research and development for the ILC for the impressive
work they have done in the past years. ICFA therefore continues to give the ILC
its full support and is looking forward to seeing the ILC take further shape as
global project."
"I am very pleased to present our ILC reference design to ICFA, the
international body that represents the leadership of high energy physics." said
GDE Director Barry Barish. "Producing a complete design that addresses the
exciting physics opportunities is a very big milestone. The Reference Design
Report sets the scale for the costs of the project and provides a strong basis
for guiding both the R&D programme and the engineering design efforts - the next
steps toward realising the ILC."
As part of the Reference Design Report, the Global Design Effort produced a
preliminary value estimate of the cost for the ILC in its present design and at
the present level of engineering and industrialisation. The estimate contains
three elements:
- 1.8 Billion ILC Value Units for site-related costs, such as the costs for
tunnelling in a specific region,
- 4.9 Billion ILC Value Units for the value of the high technology and
conventional components;
- Approximately 2,000 persons per year or 13,000 person-years for the required
supporting manpower (= 22 million person-hours)
For this value estimate: 1 ILC Value Unit = 1 US Dollar (2007) = 0.83 Euro = 117
Yen.
This estimate is comparable to the cost for the Large Hadron Collider
(LHC) at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, when costs for pre-existing facilities are
included.
The value cost estimate provides guidance for optimisation of both the design
and the R&D to be done during the engineering phase, which will formally start
in fall of 2007 after the Reference Design Report is internationally reviewed
and presented to ICFA. Based on what has been learned so far, the GDE is
confident that the value can be maintained at this level as the design is
optimised during the engineering design phase. Putting the value estimate into
the cost accounting framework used in any particular nation will require a
translation.
"The funding agencies have been following this process for a number of years.
With the release of the value estimate an important milestone has been reached",
said Roberto Petronzio, chair of FALC, the Funding Agencies for Large Colliders,
a group of representatives from funding agencies and governments around the
world that will help develop international funding mechanisms for the ILC.
Upon receiving the reference design, Shin-Ichi Kurokawa, chair of the
International Linear Collider Steering Committee and chair of the Asian
Committee for Future Accelerators thanked the GDE for their work. "We appreciate
the enormous efforts of the GDE members to accomplish a very detailed design and
cost study of the ILC," he said. "We still have to work hard to achieve this
enormous project, but this is clearly a big milestone to the road ahead."
The reference design sets the stage for an R&D programme that will involve the
three regions: Americas, Asia and Europe. "The RDR will point the way for a
focused worldwide R&D programme on key technologies," said Gerry Dugan, ILC
Regional Director for the Americas. "In the Americas, we look forward to fully
supporting the evolving machine design, contributing to the key R&D goals and
developing our regional capabilities for participation in the global ILC
project."
The ILC has already adopted international models for collaborative R&D
programmes. "Strong support from funding agencies around the world has been
crucial in this endeavour," said Brian Foster, ILC Regional Director for Europe.
"European scientists and engineers have made vital contributions in achieving
this result, working with their GDE colleagues across the world. The achievement
of the RDR consolidates the ILC's position as a crucial component of the
European Roadmaps for particle physics and for large-scale infrastructures." The
superconducting technology that was selected for the ILC in 2004 is being used
in other fields of research, such as the European free-electron laser XFEL.
All three regions involved in the ILC contributed to the Reference Design
Report, reflecting the true international cooperation of the project.
"Accomplishing the reference design is a crucial step forward for a very
challenging international scientific endeavour," said Mitsuaki Nozaki, ILC
Regional Director for Asia. "The science explored by the ILC is so attractive
that the strong international partnership has been unprecedented. We hope to
keep up the international momentum in the next phase, when a coherent R&D plan
will turn the reference design into a real engineering design for this global
project."
Additional information about the ILC:
http://www.linearcollider.org
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