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High Energy e+e- Collider R&D

CALICE logo ILD logo
Birmingham group: Robbie Bosley, Dr Tony Price, Dr Nigel Watson, Dr Miriam Watson, Alasdair Winter

ILC accelerator plan The next high energy e+e- collider will be a linear collider, either the ILC (Japan) or the CLIC (CERN); higher luminosity but lower energy alternatives are also being considered: FCC-ee (CERN) and CEPC (China). The ILC is in the most advanced state of preparation of these four options, with detailed Technical Design Reports produced in 2013 and a wide range of R&D being carried out world wide.

CLIC detector concept The main physics goals of Higgs and top quark physics require precise measurement of complicated final states with many jets of hadrons. These are best reconstructed using particle flow techniques that require high granularity calorimeters. We have been carrying out R&D as part of the CALICE Collaboration, initially concentrating on prototypes of a silicon-tungsten electromagnetic calorimeter to measure electromagnetic energy with unprecedented precision.

CLIC detector concept We are currently working on both detector simulation and small-scale hardware R&D studies to develop an ultra-high granularity "digital" ECAL using CMOS MAPS technology, with pixels of ~50 micron pitch. The technical work is closely linked to the Birmingham RD50 and BILPA developments targetting other physics applications. The detector studies for a digital ECAL using MAPS technology are ongoing, both for ILC/CLIC and also the far future FCC-hh hadron collider. Physics studies are currently concentrating on the CLIC detector concept, where we are investigating the potential for precise top quark measurements at 1.5 TeV, having recently completed studies of Higgs production in the WW* channel.