Scientists from Asia — including from Indian institutes like the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) — the US and the UK are coming together to build the next-generation accelerator, the International Linear Collider (ILC), which will complement the already-running Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and will help explore the fundamental questions about the universe.
“ILC will be the first really global science project. For the LHC, various countries contributed and the design was made at European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN). But for the ILC, scientists from across the world will be involved right from the very beginning,” said Rolf-Dieter Heuer, CERN’s director general.
“This means that countries will develop, maintain, and at some stage share operating costs. This will keep the knowledge in the home country, which can then be used to educate young people, train and attract scientists, and also retain them,” said Heuer.
He was at the TIFR to attend a meeting of funding agencies for large colliders (FALC), held in India for the first time.
FALC has been formed to oversee and monitor the progress of the operating accelerators, plan in advance what a future accelerator programme should focus on, make funding estimations, and to identify funding agencies.
“If the LHC is the discovery machine, the ILC will be the precision machine. Both will look for similar basic questions but with different view angles and production power. We expect to start building it by early 2020. It will be between 35-50 km long,” said Heuer.
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