Particle physics
CERN director-general set his sights on linear collider
Planning ahead
CERN boss Rolf-
Dieter Heuer hopes
to land the next
big experiment in
particle physics –
an electron–positron
linear collider – for
the lab.
The director-general of CERN wants
the next big experiment in particle
physics after the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to be built at the Geneva
lab. Speaking in an exclusive video
interview with Physics World, Rolf-Dieter Heuer says that CERN should
host the experiment, which would
collide electrons and positrons in a
linear accelerator. Although a design
for the machine has not been finalized
by the international particle-physics
community, Heuer is keen to bring
the collider to CERN.
“I would be a bad director-general
if I did not push for CERN at least
bidding for the next global project,”
Heuer told Physics World. “CERN is
a fantastic place. [It] has proven that
it can host such a project and therefore I think CERN should do it.”
However, Heuer is aware that it is far
from certain that the Geneva lab will
host the facility – Fermilab in the US
is likely to be a contender – and the
CERN chief is looking forward to bids
from rival labs. “Competition is always welcome,” he says.
Heuer’s desire to host the linear collider is part of his plan to make CERN
a much more global laboratory. Although CERN was set up in 1954 as a
European facility, its convention does
not prevent countries from outside
Europe from becoming members.
Several thousand physicists from the
CERN
what the LHC discovers.
Heuer also confirmed the timetable
for switching the LHC back on following the electrical fault that occurred on 19 September last year and
led to 53 magnets having to be repaired or replaced (Physics World
September p7). Beams will be injected into the 27 km circumference
circular accelerator in mid-Novem-ber, with collisions taking place a few
weeks later. “I am pretty confident
that we will have the first collisions
this year,” says the CERN boss.
US have already helped to build the
LHC and its detectors, and Heuer is
keen for links with non-European
nations to become more permanent.
“Why not involve some of the nations from the Americas or Asia as
members [of CERN]?” he asks. “This
would enable us to start the next
global project as a global project from
the very beginning – be it at CERN or
elsewhere.” CERN is already developing a blue-print for a future linear
collider, known as CLIC, while a rival
design known as the International
Linear Collider is being drawn up by
a team led by Barry Barish of the California Institute of Technology. The
precise energy at which such a collider
should operate will depend in part on
CERN engineers will begin by colliding protons at an energy of 450 GeV
per beam, before attempting collisions
at 3. 5 TeV per beam. “We will stay [at
that energy] for several months, depending on what experiments find and
on running experience,” says Heuer.
“Then in the course of the next year we
will go up to 10 TeV in the centre of
mass [i.e. 5 TeV per beam].” The LHC
will be kept online until the end of
2010 before it is shut down to prepare
the way for collisions at a maximum
energy of 14 TeV (i.e. 7 TeV per beam)
at some point during 2011. “But if we
find something interesting at 10 TeV,
then we will continue running at
10 TeV,” Heuer adds.
Matin Durrani
● Watch the Heuer interview in full
at physicsworld.com/cws/channel/
multimedia
Astronomy
Cash shortfall spells trouble for Chinese space probe
The launch of China’s first satellite
designed for astronomy has been delayed
because money for the project, promised
by the government, has not been
allocated. The 1-billion-yuan ($147m)
Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT)
was due to be launched in 2010, but will
now be delayed until 2012 at the earliest.
“As a scientist, I feel ashamed, as the
plan has been widely announced by the
Chinese government,” HXMT’s chief
scientist Li Xipei told the Beijing-based
magazine Science News Bi-weekly. The
HXMT satellite aims to study the physical
characteristics of areas surrounding
black holes. A space-based probe is
needed as X-rays emitted from space
cannot reach the Earth’s surface as they
are absorbed by the atmosphere.
The HXMT was selected in 2000 as a
civil science satellite project for the
11th five-year (2006–2010) Space
Science Plan. Li complains that disputes
between the Ministry of Finance, the
State Administration of Science
Technology and Industry, which governs
the country’s space industry, and the
Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) are
the main reason for the funding delay.
However, he says that if the budget can be
allotted within this year, then the launch
could take place by 2012.
China’s space
technologies
are said to be
world leading,
but the space-based scientific
discoveries are
shamefully zero
“China’s space technologies are said
to be world leading, but the space-based
scientific discoveries are shamefully
zero,” says Chen Xuelei, a scientist at the
CAS’s National Astronomical
Observatories. Chen explains that the
Chinese space programme is dominated
by military officials, who do not give
attention to civil space science.
Meanwhile, Li Xueyong, vice-science
minister, announced on 17 September
that China will increase its investment in
space science and technologies,
particularly manned space programmes.
Yuan Yue and Jia Hepeng
Beijing
