Very high energy particle collider will test supersymmetry theory using a 33km linear accelerator instead of circular tunnels
Scientists at the CLRC Daresbury laboratory are to collaborate on the Tesla (TeV-Energy Superconducting Linear Accelerator) research project.
Centred at Germany1s DESY (Deutsche Elektronen-SYnchrotron) Laboratory, the proposed linear electron-positron collider of around 33km in length will also involve a short wavelength X-ray free electron laser (FEL) radiation source.
A successful longer wavelength (VUV) FEL test facility has already been established as a test-bed for the advances in accelerator technology required for an X-ray source. Testing the theory of supersymmetry involves re-creating the conditions immediately following the Big Bang, by colliding electrons and positrons together with a combined energy of at least 0.5TeV.
Virtually all electron-positron colliders to date have been circular, allowing stored particles to collide repeatedly and to pass though the same accelerating structures, emitting large amounts of radiation.
At high energies, the energy loss from this radiation quickly becomes prohibitively expensive to replace, and so linear colliders considered to be the way forward.
CLRC plans to collaborate on both of the two main components of the Tesla project.
In fact, there has been activity within CLRC on the collider aspects of Tesla for several years as a result of the Particle Accelerators for Particle Physics initiative (which is jointly funded by PPARC and CLRC).
CLRC accelerator physicists are already working with their counterparts at DESY on damping ring issues, charged particle beam delivery, and aspects of beam diagnostics.
There are several areas of common interest associated with FEL activities and even though this is a relatively new area for CLRC the UK's free electron laser project, 4GLS, has received international acclaim. One area that is especially well suited to input from CLRC is that of photon beam diagnostics - characterisation of the ultrafast light pulses that emanate from the FEL.
