SNOWMASS, COLO. -- Preparations for history's most ambitious science project are on schedule according to the University of Oregon physicist who co-chairs national and international teams preparing to use "Einstein's telescope" when it roars to life in 2015.
Jim Brau announced $817,000 in new funding for the project from the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation during his closing address at the two-week workshop on the International Linear Collider . About 650 scientists from around the globe gathered at Snowmass, Colorado, to develop the technical designs and scientific plans for this massive project.
The award includes $797,000 through the University of Oregon for 25 sub-tasks involving 24 universities, and $20,000 to the Argonne National Laboratory. Brau, who directs the University of Oregon Center for High Energy Physics, is principal investigator for this effort. The center already receives more than $1 million annually in federal funding.
When completed, the linear collider will allow physicists to explore energy regions beyond the reach of today's particle accelerators. Ultimately, physicists expect it to help answer questions which have puzzled physicists since Einstein, such as the existence of extra dimensions beyond space and time. The linear collider's location has yet to be determined.
Brau congratulated the global design team and the many other scientists involved in the SnowMass workshop for making refinements in the design of the linear collider and moving forward with plans for scientific experiments that are otherwise impossible without it.
"Having the full community together has led to significant progress on this colossal effort," Brau said. "We expect to see technological advances emerge from these new detector grants which will enable us to dig deeper into the secrets of the nature of the universe. Ultimately, such advances are expected to have broader applications for society as well."
Brau co-chairs the American Linear Collider Project and the World Wide Study of the Physics and Detectors for Future Linear Colliders. He recently was selected as a member of the International Linear Collider Global Design Effort.