Time Projection Chamber Development for the International Linear Collider

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The International Linear Collider (ILC) is the next proposed world facility to study subatomic physics at the energy frontier. Participation of Canada in the ILC will keep our Nation in a leading position on the world-wide scene for the advancement of knowledge in particle physics. The ILC is an electron-positron collider with collision energy of 500 GeV initially, with the possibility for a later upgrade to 1000 GeV. The strong scientific justification is that the ILC would complement the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) as it would shed more light on the recent discovery of the Higgs boson and new findings that physicists are likely to make there in the coming years. An accelerator like the ILC will enable us to unlock secrets of our Universe in the post-LHC era. Japan is presently considering hosting the ILC laboratory. Currently in the planning stage, the ILC community has published on 12 June 2013 a five-volume Technical Design Report (TDR) that encompasses many years of globally coordinated R&D effort for the construction of both the accelerator and detectors for the ILC. Canada has been an active participant in the preparation of the TDR. The TDR contains all the elements needed to propose the ILC to collaborating governments around the planet, including a technical design and implementation plan, that are realistic and have been optimized for performance, cost and risk. In the context of the ILC to be hosted in Japan, positive recommendation could be as early as 2016 with a call for ILC experiments shortly thereafter. Canada has been at the forefront for the development of instrumentation for the ILC. Canadian physicists have been a leader in the development of novel Micro Pattern Gas Detectors (MPGDs), with the objective to keep and bring new expertise within Canada for the design and construction of novel instrumentation. In fact, researchers from Carleton University, the University of Victoria and the TRIUMF national laboratory have been engaged in the design and construction of a 4.7-meter long Time Projection Chamber (TPC), equipped with MPGDs, that will serve as the main tracker for one of the ILC detectors. The development of new charge dispersion MPGD readouts by the proponents has led the Micromegas modules instrumented with a resistive layer to become one option for the ILC TPC in the TDR. During recent grant cycles it has been demonstrated that the MPGD TPC equipped with the resistive layer readout could reach unprecedented spatial resolution and could then meet the performance goals of the TRD. The proposed two-year grant will enable us to boost and finalize our existing commitments for the ILC TPC in time for the ILC approval. The grant request includes support for students and one postdoctoral research associate, as well as travel for beam tests, meetings and workshops. At this stage of the project, maintenance and reinforcement of the TPC effort are vital to insure an active participation of Canada in the ILC.