Buoyed by the successful commissioning of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and its smooth functioning, experts have resumed the task of designing and finalising the details of a still bigger collider.

The name:  International Linear Collider (ILD)

The nick name:  Einstein’s telescope

The European director of the project: Professor Brian Foster of Oxford University


Length:  27 miles


Shape:  Straight, unlike LHC which is circular


The smashing particles:

• Electrons and Anti-electrons (Positrons)
• 14,000 collisions per second are envisaged
• 10 billion particles will be made to collide and studied

Purposes:

• Studying the extra dimensions of phenomena, other than the space and time
• Unfolding the origin of gravity
• Looking for the answers of ‘how of Big Bang’, instead of its immediate aftermath
• Resolving the gaps between the laws governing the big bodies and sub-atomic particles

Limitations of LHC:

• Collisions of protons produce a lot of debris to hinder further finer observations and details
• Inability of the machine to study the properties of Higgs Boson even after its likely detection
• When electrons and Positrons are accelerated by LHC, they lose a lot of energy in the form of bursts of X-rays

Collision facts

• When Electrons (matter) and Positrons (anti-matter) meet and collide, both disappear and their mass is converted into radiation and other particles. This process is called annihilation.
• The technology for speeding-up electrons is available now by making them surf the radio wave bursts. This technology allows electrons and positrons to acquire speeds close to that of light.

A new scientific race has begin


Already, 150 million pounds have been spent on the designing of ILC, since the initiation of the project three years ago. The likely expenditure on building the new machine will be 4 billion pounds.


The news is also abuzz that Russia too is contemplating upon building its own collider.