After the changes to the ILC plan, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT)’s Panel of Experts on the ILC reinstated their working group on elementary particle physics (chair: Director Takashi Nakano of Osaka University’s Research Center for Nuclear Physics). They gathered for their 5th meeting on May 16th to round out their discussions on the scientific importance of the ILC now that its initial length has been shortened to 20 km. The group said that the 20km length would be most suited towards precision measurement of the Higgs boson particle (the makeup of which is still unknown), and this could light the way forward to the future direction of particle physics. They will go on to present their report to the Panel of Experts.

At the meeting, the twelve members discussed the draft of the report.

The report details the scientific significance of the revised ILC plan, keeping in mind the results of experiments done at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. It lists the following:
△Precise measurement of the Higgs boson could lead to the start of an explanation of phenomena not yet explained by the current Standard Model
△Measurement of the top quark (the heaviest particle) will not be possible with the revised ILC plan
△There is little chance of finding a new particle with the revised ILC plan

Some members hoped that it would be listed in the report that the precise measurement of the Higgs has become more important following experiments at the LHC. However, they left the putting together of the report up to Chair Nakano.

After the meeting, Chair Nakano said, “The best approach of uncovering new physics at our current level of technology is the precise measurement of the Higgs boson. The revised ILC will be suitable for that task.”