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Users Group: Board of Directors Minutes

Minutes of the meeting on October 24, 2003

BOD Members Present:
Paul Stoler (Chair), Jian-Ping Chen, Ron Gilman, Sabine Jeschonnek, David Lawrence, Pete Markowitz, Clara Perdue, Maurizio Ungaro, Mark Pitt, David Armstrong.

Visitors:
Doug Higginbotham

Jefferson Lab Representatives Present:
Larry Cardman, Dennis Skopik, Christoph Leemann, Volker Burkert, Bernhard Mecking, Kees de Jager, Andrew Hutton, Dave Mack, Rusty Sprouse

The meeting began with an executive session at 8:30 AM.
Minutes were taken by Armstrong (morning) and Chen (afternoon).

Lab Status Report - Christoph Leeman

Concern was raised by the BOD that changes in the Lab management structure and increases bureaucracy are hindering ability to get physics done. Christoph is aware of the impression, doesn't want bureaucracy to get in way of getting physics done. He asked for specific examples or problems, and is happy to address them. The shortage of both funds and manpower is part of problem. For issues related to property management, changes have been mandated by new DOE-imposed procedures and restrictions. We can't change this, it is the reality of the fallout of the well-publicized problems at LANL. Christoph asks if there are specific systemic impediments?

Budget:

There is none yet, we are on a continuing resolution which implies the same expenditure rate as last fiscal year. We hope to get at least the President's budget (no guarantees!); if the President's budget passes we might be able to run a little more (32 weeks?). The Senate supported the President's budget ($3-3.5M more than last year for DOE Nuclear); the House wanted even more for Nuclear Physics (RHIC, JLab) Let's hope that the conference committee gets close to the House budget!

As for the '05 budget; we don't have much of a read on it yet (it is being worked on at OMB), but there are not optimistic signs.

Paul noted that recent the Congressional letter-writing campaign for JLab organized through the APS was quite successful, with over 100 letters from JLab users.

Pre-CDR: 12 GeV upgrade: there is an embargoed 20-year plan ("Facilities Roadmap") which has been seen by only a small number or people, all are sworn to secrecy. There has not yet been an announcement from Sec. of Energy - the latest information is that it will be announced Nov. 10 at 1 PM at the National Press Club; this talk will be broadcast on National Public Radio (89.5 FM locally).

There were 28 CD0's in the plan. We are optimistic. Assuming that the upgrade CD0 is one that is approved, then the next task is to turn the pre-CDR into an official CDR.

Chief Scientist: No public announcement yet; have a "yes" with minor qualifications, candidate appears likely to come, and we anticipate an official statement soon. This candidate would also become head of the Theory group.

Paul emphasized that it is important for the Lab to get this brought to closure.

Doug Higginbotham raised the issue of the need for space for building major new equipment? Office space should be less of an issue when get CEBAF Center new wing. Christoph acknowledged that this is a pressing need.

SURA Thesis prize and Fellowships : Clara Perdue

SURA fellowships: We need to send out an Email message to users (one has already come from Bob Welsh). The deadline for applications will be January 26.

SURA thesis prize: Nominations are due the 20th of February; a separate Email message will go out.

Next Annual Meeting: Paul Stoler

Paul proposes that the next Annual User meeting next June will have a workshop, similar to this year's successful one, with the theme being: "The Physics of Next 7 Years" (i.e pre-upgrade physics program). This idea was met with approval. There was discussion of having collaboration-forming meetings, or sessions grouped around specific physics topics rather than Halls, in a way to facilitate inter-hall collaboration. It was also suggested to bring in some non-JLab speakers (eg structure function experts from other labs), with the hope to build up the User community by attracting them to JLab.

Accelerator Division and Operations Report: Swapan Chattopadhyay

The impact of hurricane Isabel was major. We managed to save 1/3 of the liquid He; the rest was lost due to the extension power outage, and the cryomodules warmed to room temperature. Liquid He was ordered, and it arrived came in two weeks. At present: most of Linac modules are at 2.09 K, 90% liquid level filled. No major vacuum leaks were found. Four cavities have leaks (out of 300). Will leave these for now (the fix would be messy and invasive). Most of the others are running RF with good gradients. It looks optimistic for coming back at reasonably high energy (5 GeV was scheduled for early running). The end end of 3rd to 4th week of Nov. is estimate now for beam.

Source: We now have samples of the new superlattice GaAs photocathode, and one has been installed in the rebuilt Gun 2; the first try had low QE (it was fine in lab, bad in tunnel). Will continue to push on this.

Andrew Hutton: This cathode had 1% QE at 780nm in the test lab, compared to typical QE's of 0.1% or so for the present strained crystals; the superlattice crystals will use the new Ti-sapphire laser which has higher power, so one would expect we could run for very long times on a given crystal. The polarization measured at 780 nm was 80% (at SLAC and the manufacturer's lab values as high as 88%have been seen for these cathodes). These cathodes have a factor of 3 smaller analyzing power (again, measured in the test lab), which would be an important improvement for parity measurements, etc. However, the wafer treatment needed is different, and we are still learning about it, and how to reliably transfer these cathodes from the test lab to the tunnel. We have a Ti-saph laser for G0, which will go in the tunnel. Have asked for another Ti-Saph laser for the usual beam time structure.

Paul asked Larry - what will happen with beam scheduling? The plan is to simply shift the pre-existing schedule; the remaining wrinkle is the question of whether the hypernuclear experiment in Hall A can run simultaneously with G0 in Hall C - this will be tested in the first few weeks with beam, and the result will determine the detailed near-term beam schedule.

After the near-term, the plan had been to run at 5.75 GeV; this is now less certain, due to the recovery from Isabel. Since the cavities have all been thermally cycled, we will need to acquire a new database on cavity performance (especially trip rate vs. gradient) to see how things are now running in order to decide.

Status of Pentaquark Searches: Volker Burkert

Volker presented a review of the status of searches for (or should we say observations of?) pentaquarks. A brief summary is that there now appears to be many consistent signals for the Theta+ both from recent data and data "mined" from older experiments: LEPS at Spring 8, CLAS, ITEP/DIANA (old bubble chamber data), Elsa SAPHIR, CERN/ITEP (old data), NA49 (old data), Hermes, etc. There are indications of evidence for partners for the Theta+

Since July 10 2003 there have been more than 50 theory papers already on the topic.

Next steps: measure width, spin, parity, isospin, look for other channels, measure production cross section, production mechanism, search for non-exotic versions...

Summary:

Paul asked:

  1. Should JLab do something different than it already is to react to this exciting new physics?
  2. where do pentaquarks fit into pre-CDR?

The consensus is that the lab is responding appropriately, and there is no need to go beyond standard procedures.

Larry: Suggested that we could issue the pCDR as/is, and over the next 6-9 months or so, study how to incorporate pentaquarks. Could Hall D design be revised to accommodate (HALL D is optimized for 12 GeV, not the low energy appropriate for pentaquark production). We should not rush to make a major revision that is not as carefully and critically produced as the rest of the pCDR. For now, maybe we can add a small section on pentaquarks, with a few paragraphs on what CLAS++ could do ?

Dave Mack - DNP program committee

Dave is on the APS DNP program committee, and reported on the procedures used for selecting invited talks, sessions, symposia, etc. He note that this is important for visibility of JLab within the DNP. The committee sets the agenda for the the nuclear physics sessions for the APS April meeting and October DNP meeting. There are 15 members, typically 2 from the electromagnetic community, plus some sympathizers plus some who appreciate good physics; however each member has their own agenda. The other members represent

(the pion, muon, and neutron physics communities are not really represented at present)

The job of a committee member involves co-proposing 1-2 invited sessions, 1-2 minisymposia, then to nag the community to nominate speakers for the "voted" or grab-bag sessions. Note that one can nominate the same speaker every 6 months, so if your proposed speaker is not nominated, try again! Competition is stiff for invited talks, and there is an element of randomness in the process.

The Hall speaker committees input has been useful. It is too late for suggestions for Denver APS ("April meeting, which will be held in May 2004); it is now time to think of the next DNP meeting.

For invited sessions, there is a better chance of the session being accepted if not all the speakers are JLab. Minisymposia are easier to get accepted, and they each have one invited speaker.

CEBAF CENTER addition - Rusty Sprouse

Rusty Sprouse presented the plans and status of the new wing for CEBAF center. There will be a new road and parking lot. The design is intended to be flexible, to accommodate changes in needs and patterns of use. The first floor will include the new location for the computer center, tape vault, CC technical shop, and a conference room for the CC. The 2nd floor will have various conference rooms, some offices, open space (mainly CC staff); user space will be in the form of cubicles. The 3rd floor will have a videoconference room, more user cubicles. The total user space on 2nd and 3rd floors will be 61K sq feet; 22K sq ft of trailers will be demolished (this is (2/3 of Trailer city). Funding is spread over FY03-05.

Schedule:

Concern was raised by BOD members about security issues for users whose offices would now be cubicles: how to protect their laptops, books, and other valuables if there are no doors? Rusty replied that doors on the cubicles would be an expensive redesign; to provide real security this would require raising height of cubicle walls, thus cutting off natural light. An alternative was suggested of furniture (desks, cabinets) that can be locked. This seemed a reasonable alternative.

---(Afternoon part)---

  1. The next User Meeting is tentatively scheduled to be June 16-18 (Wed.-Fri) 2004 (if there is no conflict with the PAC meeting). Paul suggested to have the User Meeting with sessions focused on 'CEBAF: the Next Seven Years'. After discussion, it was agreed to have the following sessions and organizers:
    1. Form Factors and Related Topics (eg. two photon physics) (Ron Gilman, Paul Stoler)
    2. Search for 'exotic' hadrons (organizers: Pete Markowitz, Paul Stoler)
    3. Structure Functions (J. P. Chen, R. Gilman)
    4. Fewbody Physics (Sabine Jeschonnek, J. P. Chen); in parallel with
    5. Parity Violation (Mark Pitt, Dave Armstrong)
    6. Lattice QCD (Sabine Jeschonnek and tbd); in parallel with
    7. Instrumentation (Dave Armstrong, Mark Pitt)
  2. Satellite User Meetings during APS Meetings:
    1. DNP meeting at Tucson: Ron Gilman is going. Any input please send to him. He will announce the next June User Meeting.
    2. APS at Denver: Whoever from UGBOD is going will organize it. Need to work through the APS conference organizer when time gets closer.
  3. Impact of DOE Order on Foreign National Visitors:
    Clara Purdue reported that, since the spring of this year, the Lab has been subject to DOE Order 142 (Foreign Visits and Assignments). It has changed the way we do business with our foreign national visitors. We are now required to document the legal status of our visitors and go through an approval process for them to have access to the site. This can create delays of two weeks to three months for our foreign visitors to be approved and have access to the site. The next annual meeting of User Administrators from the various Labs will be held next Monday and Tuesday at Brookhaven where there will be a focus on the Order. This year the User Administrators will be joined by the User Executive Chairs (David Armstrong from our Board of Directors) where we will have an opportunity to talk with DOE regarding the impact of the Order on our Users.

    Visa issues - There was a discussion on visa issues and Clara advised that an e-mail was sent to all users asking for input into an NSF system describing their difficulties.
  4. Ron Gilman reported on computing:
    1. Users generally happy. There were improvements that get users connected to information about what is going on at the lab. For example, the new access to the accelerator elog.
    2. There was an open scientific computing meeting 8/28 to provide input to Computer Center. CC reviewed generally evolutionary hardware upgrades (improvements to the farm, upgrades to network, ...) and software upgrades (farm, RH7 to RH 10 with 2.6 kernel when available, grid computing, ...)
    3. Scientific Computing Comm. meeting 9/3 reviewed the 8/28 meeting. New machines being added to farm by accelerator, which will get dedicated farm shares in return.
    4. Board discussed some perceived problems:
      • User like to upgrade Linux machines more often than CC; often there are software compatibility issues. Users would like clearer how-to / recipe documentation for configuring their Linux laptops when they come on site, e.g. connecting to the network, getting mail, reconfiguring when leaving. Users would like more Linux support.
      • Wireless to counting house and residence facility are being upgraded. Comments that some areas in CEBAF Center and Trailer City also have poor coverage.
      • Temporary network setups (~1 year): who should be responsible?
  5. Maurizio Ungaro reported on Graduate Student Issues:
    Room 60 in trailer city has been set up as activity room: Ping-Pong, foosball, TV. May add DVD player. Would like to change the present lock to use the CARM system (Dennis Skopik said he would take care of it).
  6. Mark Pitt reported on Quality of Life:
    The management of the SURA residence facility is requesting funds from SURA to upgrade the in-room computers. At their request, the BOD ran a survey in early September 2003 to collect data on the computer habits of the residence facility guests. The results can be found at: http://www.phys.vt.edu/~pitt/jlab_survey/comp_survey_results.html
    The results indicate that there is a majority of users (57%) who do not bring a laptop to the residence facility, and therefore they need an in-room computer.

    The residence facility management has requested money from SURA to outfit each room with a so-called "thin-client" computer with flat screen LCD monitors. Details of this thin-client solution can be found by clicking on the link to the original survey at the above web address.

    In general, the residence facility has undergone many improvements recently. These include new carpet, paint, bedspreads, drapes, shower curtains, and Great Room furniture. If you are pleased with all the changes, please let the manager (Ms. Rose Durham) know during your next stay.
  7. J. P. Chen reported on Running Experiments:
    During the last running period (after the last BOD meeting):
    1. Hall A has completed data taking for E97-110: Forward Angle GDH, which studies the spin structure in the neutron and He3 at very low Q^2, testing Chiral Perturbation Theory calculations. A single septum magnet was used, which worked well this time. The experiment completed the main physics goal with somewhat reduced statistics (~80%) and less data in the overlap region for cross-checking with the previous measurement.
    2. Hall B completed the e1 run group data-taking, which has four physics goals:
      1. Low Q^2 E2/M1 of N--> Delta transition in single pion production;
      2. Beam spin asymmetry in single pion production to help resonance and background separation;
      3. Search for missing resonances via multi-pion channels;
      4. Extend kinematic region for exclusive Kaon-Hyperon production.
      All the physics goals were reached.
    3. Hall C ran 5 experiments, but only 3 gave feedback:
      1. N--Delta transition at high Q^2 up to 6.5 GeV^2, which also took exploratory data at 7.5 GeV^2;
      2. Pion form factor at Q^2=1.6 and 2.45 GeV^2. Also took date on deuterium to study the pion-/pion+ ratio;
      3. Duality in semi-inclusive (e,e'pion).
      The first two completed the physics goals. The third got 15.5 days of scheduled 25 days beam and will need highest energy beam for the highest x point.

      For the halls: The Hall staff were generally very helpful.
      • The hall equipment shows signs of aging, we need more effort in maintenance.
      • Hall A HRS started to have problems in power supplies and control electronics.
      • Hall B major problem with drift chambers, which caused early ending of the running.
      • Hall C HMS control is out-dated, HMS Q2 problem.

      For the accelerator : The operations group are usually tolerant and persistent in their effort in solving problems. Problems during the period:

      1. CHL crashes caused significant down time;
      2. BLM trips for high current running in Hall C. After persistent effort from Operations group, it succeeded in running high current. Trips often came back after major configuration changes. It was suggested re-calibrate the BLM after major configuration changes.
      3. Beam study often caused significant additional down time after beam study completed, but before the beam restored to acceptable condition. The suggestion was made to combine beam studies to be in fewer days each week.
    4. Pete Markowitz reported on space issue:
      Main thing is the CEBAF Center addition. Hall leaders handling of user space seems ok. Paul asked about the issue of users working in more than one hall, seems mostly resolved.
    5. Sabine Jeschonnek reported on interactions of the theory group with experimentalists.

      The interaction has improved with addition of one joint position (Marc Vanderhaeghen) and another position (phenomenology) to be filled. Theory wing is crowded due to many visitors there. Inquired about possible space, answer was no space available in CEBAF Center.
    6. Kees de Jager reported on Hall A status:
      Forward angle GDH completed. Septum worked well with a temporary fix for the cooling problem. Second Septum arrived in late August with a change to avoid the cooling problem encountered in the first one. It has been worked on in the hall and leak-checked. The cooling problem with the first Septum has been repaired. Next week will be alignment and check scattering chamber. Then both Septa will be moved to the pivot and cool-down starts in early Nov. Ready for test by mid Nov. By mid Dec. ready for commissioning. Schedule will be kept pretty much the same order with a slip, length of the slip depending on the hypernuclear and G0 beam compatibility test.

      Question: What us the effect of the beam heating to Septum for HAPPEX-II?
      Answer: it is too early to tell. There is a discrepancy between calculation and the test. The calculation is being re-visited. Improved cooling should help.

      Question: what are the near-term large scale experiments:
      Answer: There are HAPPEX II and HAPPEX He, DVCS, Short-Range-Correlation, He3/He4 elastic form factors and Gen. If accelerator cannot get 6 GeV in near-term, schedule will change (DVCS needs 6 GeV).
    7. Volker Burkert reported on Hall B status:
      7/29/03 completed e1 (N*) group running;
      8/1/03 EG2 (E02-104, quark propagation through cold QCD matter;
      E02-110, nuclear transparency in incoherent rho production) started;
      8/12 Commissioning completed. After a few days data taking, drift chamber problems emerged.
      8/25 Run ended due to drift chamber problems.

      Drift chamber problems initially traced to increasing humidity in gas volume. Dry atmosphere seemed to eliminate high current seen in some areas. Wrapped with plastic bags sealed with flowing dry air. During down time, will replace all pre-amps on 4 region-3 axial super layers where there were corrosion problem re-occurring similar to those seen in January. Two drift chambers completed replacement.

      Preparation for PRIMEX installation continues. Detector (TyCal) assembly in test labis underway. Readiness review for the experiment will take place 11/20. The initially scheduled run is in April/May.

      Preparation for DVCS test run is underway. 100 (25%) of all PbWO4 calorimeter modules and Helmholtz magnets of polarized target will be installed. Sixty PAC days of running following PRIMEX.
    8. Dave Mack reported on Hall C status:
      Since spring 03, ran five experiments:
      1. F_2 structure function at low Q^2;
      2. N--> Delta;
      3. F_2 at medium Q^2;
      4. Duality in semi-inclusive (e,e'pion)
      5. Pion form factor phase II.
      Hall Status: G0 magnet cooling, at ~100K. They will switch to LHe on Monday. Commissioning after Nov. 7. Lots of G0 work ongoing: amplifier changes, gain matching, luminosity monitor installation, etc. Engineering run to start roughly Nov. 21. Forward angle running planned for March 04.
    9. Staging:
      1. Preparing for the Hypernuclear experiment: Dipole is being shipped from Japan. Detector delivery/testing underway.
      2. Preparing for Gep/Gmp: Big Calorimeter stacked. PMT installation has begun. The prototype drift chamber to arrive soon.
      3. An issue: we are running out of room to assemble detectors! (Kees: Hall A also has a big issue of lacking sufficient assembly space)
      4. Preparation for a handful of 6 GeV experiments.

Pete asked the Hall leaders about the status of user office space, now that the Hall leaders are managing this.

Kees: Needs better information about who is using what office and how much it is being used.

Volker: No improvement with Hall leader handling space. One complaint from a user who works in 3 halls.

Dave: no idea.

The meeting was adjourned at 15:30.