skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Linear Collider Physics Resource Book Snowmass 2001

Abstract

The American particle physics community can look forward to a well-conceived and vital program of experimentation for the next ten years, using both colliders and fixed target beams to study a wide variety of pressing questions. Beyond 2010, these programs will be reaching the end of their expected lives. The CERN LHC will provide an experimental program of the first importance. But beyond the LHC, the American community needs a coherent plan. The Snowmass 2001 Workshop and the deliberations of the HEPAP subpanel offer a rare opportunity to engage the full community in planning our future for the next decade or more. A major accelerator project requires a decade from the beginning of an engineering design to the receipt of the first data. So it is now time to decide whether to begin a new accelerator project that will operate in the years soon after 2010. We believe that the world high-energy physics community needs such a project. With the great promise of discovery in physics at the next energy scale, and with the opportunity for the uncovering of profound insights, we cannot allow our field to contract to a single experimental program at a single laboratory in the world.more » We believe that an e{sup +}e{sup -} linear collider is an excellent choice for the next major project in high-energy physics. Applying experimental techniques very different from those used at hadron colliders, an e{sup +}e{sup -} linear collider will allow us to build on the discoveries made at the Tevatron and the LHC, and to add a level of precision and clarity that will be necessary to understand the physics of the next energy scale. It is not necessary to anticipate specific results from the hadron collider programs to argue for constructing an e{sup +}e{sup -} linear collider; in any scenario that is now discussed, physics will benefit from the new information that e{sup +}e{sup -} experiments can provide. This last point merits further emphasis. If a new accelerator could be designed and built in a few years, it would make sense to wait for the results of each accelerator before planning the next one. Thus, we would wait for the results from the Tevatron before planning the LHC experiments, and wait for the LHC before planning any later stage. In reality accelerators require a long time to construct, and they require such specialized resources and human talent that delay can cripple what would be promising opportunities. In any event, we believe that the case for the linear collider is so compelling and robust that we can justify this facility on the basis of our current knowledge, even before the Tevatron and LHC experiments are done. The physics prospects for the linear collider have been studied intensively for more than a decade, and arguments for the importance of its experimental program have been developed from many different points of view. This book provides an introduction and a guide to this literature. We hope that it will allow physicists new to the consideration of linear collider physics to start from their own personal perspectives and develop their own assessments of the opportunities afforded by a linear collider.« less

Authors:
 [1]
  1. Editor
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
COLLABORATION - Argonne NationalLaboratory
OSTI Identifier:
909497
Report Number(s):
LBNL-47813
TRN: US0703894
DOE Contract Number:  
DE-AC02-05CH11231
Resource Type:
Technical Report
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS; ACCELERATORS; ACCURACY; CERN LHC; DESIGN; FERMILAB TEVATRON; HADRONS; LINEAR COLLIDERS; PHYSICS; PLANNING; PRESSING; TARGETS

Citation Formats

Ronan, M T. Linear Collider Physics Resource Book Snowmass 2001. United States: N. p., 2001. Web. doi:10.2172/909497.
Ronan, M T. Linear Collider Physics Resource Book Snowmass 2001. United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/909497
Ronan, M T. 2001. "Linear Collider Physics Resource Book Snowmass 2001". United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/909497. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/909497.
@article{osti_909497,
title = {Linear Collider Physics Resource Book Snowmass 2001},
author = {Ronan, M T},
abstractNote = {The American particle physics community can look forward to a well-conceived and vital program of experimentation for the next ten years, using both colliders and fixed target beams to study a wide variety of pressing questions. Beyond 2010, these programs will be reaching the end of their expected lives. The CERN LHC will provide an experimental program of the first importance. But beyond the LHC, the American community needs a coherent plan. The Snowmass 2001 Workshop and the deliberations of the HEPAP subpanel offer a rare opportunity to engage the full community in planning our future for the next decade or more. A major accelerator project requires a decade from the beginning of an engineering design to the receipt of the first data. So it is now time to decide whether to begin a new accelerator project that will operate in the years soon after 2010. We believe that the world high-energy physics community needs such a project. With the great promise of discovery in physics at the next energy scale, and with the opportunity for the uncovering of profound insights, we cannot allow our field to contract to a single experimental program at a single laboratory in the world. We believe that an e{sup +}e{sup -} linear collider is an excellent choice for the next major project in high-energy physics. Applying experimental techniques very different from those used at hadron colliders, an e{sup +}e{sup -} linear collider will allow us to build on the discoveries made at the Tevatron and the LHC, and to add a level of precision and clarity that will be necessary to understand the physics of the next energy scale. It is not necessary to anticipate specific results from the hadron collider programs to argue for constructing an e{sup +}e{sup -} linear collider; in any scenario that is now discussed, physics will benefit from the new information that e{sup +}e{sup -} experiments can provide. This last point merits further emphasis. If a new accelerator could be designed and built in a few years, it would make sense to wait for the results of each accelerator before planning the next one. Thus, we would wait for the results from the Tevatron before planning the LHC experiments, and wait for the LHC before planning any later stage. In reality accelerators require a long time to construct, and they require such specialized resources and human talent that delay can cripple what would be promising opportunities. In any event, we believe that the case for the linear collider is so compelling and robust that we can justify this facility on the basis of our current knowledge, even before the Tevatron and LHC experiments are done. The physics prospects for the linear collider have been studied intensively for more than a decade, and arguments for the importance of its experimental program have been developed from many different points of view. This book provides an introduction and a guide to this literature. We hope that it will allow physicists new to the consideration of linear collider physics to start from their own personal perspectives and develop their own assessments of the opportunities afforded by a linear collider.},
doi = {10.2172/909497},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/909497}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 2001},
month = {Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 2001}
}