International Linear Collider (ILC): A Technical Progress Report

Abstract

In 2003, more than 2,700 scientists from around the world signed a published statement Understanding Matter, Energy, Space and Time: the Case for the Linear Collider [1-1]. The statement made clear the undisputed worldwide consensus that the next energy frontier machine after the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) should be an electron-positron linear collider with an initial centre-of-mass energy reach of 500 gigaelectronvolts (GeV), upgradable to 1 teraelectronvolt (TeV). In the same year, the International Committee for Future Accelerators (ICFA) commissioned the International Technology Review Panel (ITRP) to select from the then competing acceleration technologies a single technology that would be the basis for an international design effort towards a truly global project. The following year, 2004, the ITRP recommended to ICFA that the 1.3-gigahertz superconducting radiofrequency (SCRF) technology developed by the TESLA collaboration [1-2] should form the basis for the design of the International Linear Collider (ILC).