A University of Oklahoma-developed theory provides the
rationale for the next-generation particle accelerator—the International Linear
Collider. The discovery of the Higgs boson at the CERN Large Hadron Collider in
Geneva Switzerland this past year prompted particle physicists to look ahead to
the development of the ILC, an electron-positron collider designed to measure
in detail all the properties of the newly discovered Higgs particle.
Howard Baer, professor in the OU Homer L. Dodge Department
of Physics and Astronomy, was one of the lead authors of the five-volume ILC
Technical Design Report published on June 12. The report, which presents the
latest and most technologically advanced blueprint for construction of the ILC,
was celebrated recently by the global particle physics community in three
consecutive events in Asia, Europe and the Americas.