Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

International Super Collider Proposal

Posted by michael on from the smoke-filled-room dept.

knightwolf writes: ""Particle Physicists Plan the Next Big Thing" - the New York Times online has an article describing the discussion around a new particle accelerator, including some commentary on the difficulties present in an international collaboration project. An interesting read - but it brings up other concerns - what about collaboration on other projects, such as software projects, internationally? Problems? Concerns? Major catastrophes?" Scientists fighting over a $6 billion expenditure - not a pretty sight.

4 of 7 comments (clear)

  1. Why not spend this researching accelerators? by Christopher+Thomas · · Score: 2

    It seems to me that as accelerators become more and more expensive, it might be more cost-effective to devote accelerator funding to researching other classes of accelerator, instead of building larger and larger synchrotons and other conventional accelerators.

    I've been following the development of plasma accelerators with much interest. They have a much greater rate of acceleration of particles, which means that an accelerator of a given energy could be much smaller (and hence hopefuly cheaper) than a synchroton. A good paper discussing the merits and problems with current plasma accelerator designs is at http://www.indiana.edu/~icfa/icfa12/node24.html .

    Other promising types of accelerator almost certainly exist also.

    I'm not saying that synchrotons should be abandoned because they're bad; on the contrary, they work quite well. I'm arguing that it would be _cheaper_ to invest accelerator funding in developing new types of accelerator, as opposed to building ever-larger synchrotons.

    1. Re:Why not spend this researching accelerators? by Christopher+Thomas · · Score: 2

      In fact plasma and laser accelerators, while a very good idea being explored in many places, are not ready for prime time yet. Currently, they are NOT cheaper yet ... either to build or to operate. And they likely won't be for many years.

      My point is that for $6 billion you could, from scratch, build a plasma accelerator research facility the size of a university and fund it for years.

      The payoff from doing this would be at the very least advancement in plasma accelerator research, and possibly development of a practical plasma accelerator. This would vastly benefit all future accelerator projects.

      Spending $6 billion on a conventional accelerator won't provide this long-term benefit; future accelerators will still be extremely expensive. This is why I question the wisdom of *not* devoting the funding to accelerator design research, if that level of funding is available.

    2. Re:Why not spend this researching accelerators? by krlynch · · Score: 2

      In fact plasma and laser accelerators, while a very good idea being explored in many places, are not ready for prime time yet. Currently, they are NOT cheaper yet ... either to build or to operate. And they likely won't be for many years.

      Although the article is not very clear on this point, the accelerator being discussed in this article is the "Next Linear Collider", or NLC. If built, it would be a linear electron positron collider, and not a synchrotron. Although suggestions to build a very large hadron collider (imaginatively titled the Very Large Hadron Collider, or VLHC :-) are currently also under design discussion.

      And the SLAC/Fermilab directors recommending siting an NLC in the US without consulting with the director of KEK has really pissed off the Japanese and has been a highlight of the conference so far.

  2. Re:why another accelerator? by logophage · · Score: 2

    the bigger the particle accelerator the higher the energies of particles that can be smashed together. actually, it's a bit more complicated than that; things like accelerator lifespan, different magnetic confinement techniques, new detector designs/geometries, particle production equipment and so on are also part of the equation. ultimately though, the longer the tube and the stronger the magnets, the greater the speed and the larger the mass of the particles that can be smashed together.