Linear collider

A collider whose main beams are accelerated along opposing linear beamlines and brought into collision without returning repeatedly around a storage ring. Sources, beam conditioning, final focus, extraction, and dumps are essential parts of the layout, as well as the main accelerating structures.

A proposed electron–positron linear collider using normal-conducting RF structures powered through a separate drive-beam deceleration system. The 2012 conceptual design studied multi-TeV operation and lower-energy stages; its $3$ TeV design used approximately $100$ MV/m main-linac gradients. Historical design targets should be distinguished from later staging revisions and from operating measurements. ^[ref]

A proposed electron–positron linear collider based on superconducting RF acceleration. The 2007 reference design relevant to an exam-era comparison targeted $500$ GeV centre-of-mass energy and peak collider luminosity $2\times 10^{34}\mathrm{c}{\mathrm{m}}^{-2}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$, with approximately $31$ km total footprint. These are historical design parameters, not achieved machine performance. ^[ref]