What is the International Linear Collider

The International Linear Collider is a proposed new Terascale electron-positron collider that together with the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, will 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 12 kilometers long, hurl beams of electrons and positrons toward each other at nearly the speed of light. The machine design incorporates an upgrade to 20 kilometers long. 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.

Image: Provided by www.interactions.org

(Source: DESY Hamburg)

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