(Reporting by the Sendai Bureau)
The Linear Collider Workshop started on October 28th at the Sendai International Center in Aoba, Sendai. The workshop is being held in the Tohoku region for the first time in three years, since the Morioka LCWS held in 2016. It will last five days until November 1st. One of the major themes of the workshop is the realization of the International Linear Collider in the Kitakami mountains of Iwate, and discussions will be had on improving technology.
Around 400 accelerator researchers from 22 countries were in attendance. A general meeting was held on the first day, with President Hideo Ono of Tohoku University giving the opening speech: “I expect there will be fruitful discussions towards pushing the ILC forward.” Yoshihiro Murai, Governor of Miyagi, said, “The realization of the ILC in Tohoku will greatly contribute to industrial development and our reconstruction from the 2011 disaster.”
The Japanese national government will be making its decision while keeping an eye on the next European strategy for particle physics (2020-2024), so participants confirmed the work schedule leading up to the strategy’s establishment in May 2020. Dr. Lyn Evans, representative of the Linear Collider Collaboration (the group of researchers that organized the LCWS) said, “We are receiving strong support from the Tohoku region. Let’s work together towards making the ILC a reality in Japan.”
Within the Sendai International Center, 55 manufacturing companies and organizations from around Japan and the rest of the world (five from Iwate) have set up booths where they will share their unique technical prowess through their products and information panels. Director Toshiyuki Okubo of Iwate Iron (an iron manufacturer in Kitakami City, Iwate, that showed off its casting technology which could be used to create a base for the ILC accelerator), said, “I’d like to share with the world that Iwate’s traditional manufacturing industries can play a part in this advanced technology.”
During LCWS, there will be workshops and presentations about challenges and new developments in the field of accelerators and particle physics. On November 1st, Geoffrey Taylor, head of the International Committee for Future Accelerators (a group of leaders from the world’s foremost accelerator facilities), will give a seminar. They are also planning to adopt the Sendai Statement, which will convey the importance of building the ILC in Japan.