July 3, 2013

OU Physicists Develop Rationale for the Next-Generation Particle Collider



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.