THE technology for the next-generation particle accelerator that will probe deep into the composition of matter has been decided. Now all that the International Linear Collider (ILC) needs to get going is around €5 billion and a home. Finding them will be a monumental task if another international project is anything to go by.
The ILC decision was announced at a conference in Beijing on 20 August. The collider will use superconducting magnets operating close to absolute zero to drive electrons and positrons to high-energy, head-on collisions. The debris from these collisions may contain new particles, such as the Higgs…
