ILC (International Linear Collider) project

Electron-positron linear colliders have been under development since about 20 years ago and are the strongest candidates as future accelerators for high-energy physics. Two different technologies, normal and superconducting, have been competing. Regardless of the technology used, it was anticipated that the colliders would be too expensive to be afforded by one country or one region, and the decision was made to construct a single collider under international collaboration. The world high-energy physics community decided last summer that the next linear collider should be built utilizing the superconducting technology. Since then an international team has worked intensely studying the design of the collider. This article briefly describes the machine and summarizes the current status of the design. (author)