University-Based Accelerator R&D for the International Linear Collider

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This proposal requests support for a university-based Accelerator Research and Development (R&D) program aimed particularly at a future International Linear Collider (ILC). At the start of the millenium, the world's particle physicists arrived at a consensus that an ILC should be the next major facility for high-energy physics. Since then, candidate technologies for the accelerator were developed, the global community has agreed on the technology to be used and a global center to coordinate the completion of the design is now forming. Realizing the vision of the ILC will be a great challenge both technically and in timeliness. The technical challenges lie in both detector and accelerator areas and derive from the need for high luminosity and high precision of measurement. The timeliness challenge lies in the need to have significant overlap with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) if the full synergy of the two approaches to the energy frontier is to be achieved. The physics goals of the ILC require a starting center-of-mass energy of 500 GeV, upgradeable to approximately 1 TeV or more, and a luminosity that is an ambitious four orders of magnitude larger than that achieved by the Stanford Linear Collider. Achieving the high energy and ultra-low emittance of the ILC requires significant new advances in many areas of accelerator physics and technology, including beam simulation, beam diagnostics, radio-frequency structure development, and accelerator controls. This proposal addresses leading challenges in these areas, bringing to bear the talents of both experienced accelerator scientists and experimental physicists with expertise in instrumentation. In order to provide governments with a convincing design and cost estimate, in time for substantial overlap with the LHC, these accelerator challenges need to be addressed urgently. This proposal seeks to be a visible step towards that goal.This program will have scientific impact beyond the ILC. The accelerator physics R&D will push the state of the art in many areas (such as diagnostics) that have applications across the whole spectrum of accelerators. Benefits will accrue to the many other fields such as materials science, condensed matter physics, biophysics, and medical science, which utilize accelerators as their front-line research tools. The collaborating groups have a strong history of outreach to undergraduates and K-12 students and teachers. The work supported by this proposal will be integrated into these outreach efforts.