Report on ECFA Activities

Transcription

1 CERN/SPC/1111 Original: English 14 September 2018 ORGANISATION EUROPÉENNE POUR LA RECHERCHE NUCLÉAIRE CERN EUROPEAN ORGANIZATION FOR NUCLEAR RESEARCH Action to be taken Voting Procedure For information SCIENTIFIC POLICY COMMITTEE 310 th Meeting September For information RESTRICTED COUNCIL ON EUROPEAN STRATEGY MATTERS 190 th Session 28 September Report on ECFA Activities

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3 CERN/SPC/ Report on ECFA Activities 1. Dates of Plenary and Restricted ECFA meetings Since the Council meetings in September 2017, two Plenary ECFA (PECFA) meetings have taken place, as listed below. The agendas and presentations can be accessed via the links provided. 101st Plenary ECFA meeting at CERN, November 2017, 102nd Plenary ECFA meeting at ALBA, July 2018, During the same period, Restricted ECFA (RECFA) visited the following countries: Romania, 23 March 2018, Austria, 6 April 2018, Slovakia, 18 May 2018, The programme and content of the open sessions are accessible via the links provided. Additional RECFA meetings took place prior to the PECFA meetings, on 16 November 2017 and on 19 July Plenary ECFA meetings a. The 101st PECFA meeting at CERN (November 2017) At its meeting in Turkey, RECFA elected a new Chair, Professor Jorgen D Hondt (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium), to take office from 1 January 2018 for a three-year mandate. Plenary ECFA endorsed this decision. The version of the ECFA Terms of Reference updated by RECFA was endorsed by PECFA. The main changes with respect to the previous version were the limitation of membership to European countries, the provision of equal rights for CERN Associate Member States in the pre-stage to Membership, Associate Member States and Member States, the concretisation of ECFA s decision-making process (i.e. vote by RECFA, endorsement by PECFA) and the formalisation of the participation of the CERN Director for Research and Computing in RECFA meetings. Turkey and Cyprus entered ECFA as new members. PECFA was informed of the ICFA statement on the ILC operating at 250 GeV as a Higgs boson factory, formulated at the ICFA seminar in Ottawa (Canada) in November The meeting continued with reports from major laboratories in Europe: CERN, DESY and Frascati. A dedicated report on IPPOG, the International Particle Physics Outreach Group, was provided by Hans Peter Beck (Bern University, Switzerland), as well as a report by Els Koffeman (Nikhef and Universiteit van Amsterdam, the Netherlands) on the ECFA

4 2 CRN/SPC/1111 detector R&D panel. Mid-term reports from France and Serbia were discussed. Triggered by the recent intriguing results on the topic, a dedicated session was organised on lepton universality and flavour conservation. During the session, experts summarised the experimental results and provided context for interpretation. Reports were heard on the ECFA linear collider physics and detector study (Juan Fuster Verdú, IFIC-Valencia, Spain), the CLIC project (Lucie Linssen, CERN) and the FCC project (Michael Benedikt, CERN). Progress was also reported on novel accelerator technologies (Patric Muggli, Max Planck Institute for Physics, Munich, Germany, and CERN). The long-range plans of ApPEC and NuPECC were discussed by their respective chairs, Angela Bracco (Universita di Milano and INFN, Italy) and Antonio Masiero (University of Padova and INFN, Italy). b. The 102nd PECFA meeting at ALBA (July 2018) The meeting was kindly hosted by the ALBA Synchrotron near Barcelona (Spain). Visits were scheduled to some of the facilities relating to high-energy physics. The ECFA Chair opened the meeting with the nomination of Carlos Lacasta (IFIC-Valencia, Spain) as ECFA Secretary for the remaining period of Plenary ECFA endorsed the nomination and, after the meeting, Carlos Lacasta replaced Calin Alexa (National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering IFIN HH, Romania) as ECFA Secretary. Plenary ECFA thanked Calin Alexa for his work since Slovenia and Ukraine were endorsed as new members of ECFA. The ECFA Chair informed the Committee that Lithuania had also been invited to join ECFA. The ALBA director, Professor Caterina Biscari, welcomed Plenary ECFA and presented an overview of the activities of the hosting institute. Juan Fuster (IFIC-Valencia, Spain) informed the Committee of the high-energy physics research activities under way in Spain with clear links to astroparticle and nuclear physics. He emphasised the critical funding situation in view of the HL-LHC upgrade. Francis Pérez (CELLS, Spain) presented accelerator activities in Spain. The report of the ECFA Chair highlighted some recent achievements relating to accelerator facilities and technologies. Plenary ECFA endorsed the appointment of the NuPECC Chair as an Observer to ECFA, i.e. similar to the Observer status of the ApPEC Chair. The Chair informed the Committee that two joint ApPEC-ECFA-NuPECC working groups had been created, the first to explore the possibility of a diversity charter for the organisations and collaborations in our communities and the second to explore the organisation of a joint seminar among the three communities every three years. At the meeting, the working group on detector R&D launched a survey on detector R&D in Europe, with the aim of providing input for the update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics. The ECFA Chair also informed the Committee that two ECFA working groups had been created, the first dealing with software skills in our community and the second with the recognition of individual achievements in large collaborations. During the meeting at ALBA, two presentations were given on the topic of software. Andrey Ustyuzhanin (Yandex School of Data Analysis, Russia) presented an overview of the evolution of software for data analysis and Graeme Stewart (CERN) provided the Committee with insights on the future opportunities and challenges for software in high-energy physics. Archana Sharma (CERN) gave an inspirational talk on the topic of individual recognition, which was followed by a report from the above-mentioned working group on the state-of-the-art procedures relating to recognition deployed in particle physics today. This was followed by a debate on the topic, with the following panel members: Pierluigi Campana (Frascati, Italy), Max Klein (University of Liverpool, UK), Jo van den Brand (Nikhef, the Netherlands), Francesco Forti (University of Pisa, Italy) and Enrique Kajamovitz (Technion, Israel), moderated by

5 CERN/SPC/ Manfred Krammer (CERN). The schedule for the update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics was presented and the four members of the Physics Preparatory Group (PPG) from ECFA were endorsed by PECFA: Stan Bentvelsen (Nikhef, the Netherlands), Paris Sphicas (University of Athens, Greece and CERN), Marco Zito (Saclay, France), Antonio Zoccoli (INFN, University of Bologna, Italy). The ECFA Chair informed Plenary ECFA of the intention to initiate a series of ECFA newsletters, with one issue reporting on each Plenary ECFA meeting, hence two issues per year. The purpose is to provide a comprehensive overview of each meeting for the community. Reports from CERN, DESY and Frascati were heard, as well as mid-term reports from Germany, Hungary and the UK. 3. RECFA country visits Since 2018, the reports on the RECFA country visits have contained both an executive report and an extensive report in which RECFA elaborates on its recommendations. Both the executive summaries and the extensive reports are available on the ECFA website. a. Turkey, October 2017 It was a great pleasure for the European Committee for Future Accelerators (ECFA) to visit Turkey on 6 and 7 October Among others, the following comments were addressed in the report. The committee was impressed by the extensive and excellent educational network with a large body of academics and graduate students. The focus of the high-energy physics community in Turkey is on the LHC experiments. The Turkish particle physics community is somewhat fragmented, with 80 doctorate-level physicists distributed among 40 institutes spread over a wide geographical area. Despite this challenge, they manage to collaborate successfully on experiments by forming thematic clusters between institutes. However, the investment made in the experimental programme is currently not at a level appropriate for a country with the resources and aspirations of Turkey, in particular given the investment that is now being made at CERN through its status as an Associate Member State. The Turkish astroparticle physics research programme is mostly focused on astronomy projects at the TUBITAK National Observatory in Bakirlitepe, which hosts a 1.5 m TUG RTT150 telescope. The Committee is impressed by the number of university groups and the wide spectrum of detector and accelerator R&D activities carried out by Turkish scientists both within the country and abroad. The Committee believes that these valuable technical skills need to be maintained and could be extended. The Committee appreciates the progress in the field of computing infrastructure in the country, however the resources channelled towards GRID computing and similar technologies used by big science are limited. A country like Turkey with big investments in scientific infrastructure could get more return by investing in these technologies.

6 4 CRN/SPC/1111 In recent years, a very active programme for schools and school teachers has been developed, initiated by Turkish physicists based at CERN through non-turkish institutes, even without central support from funding agencies. The Committee stresses the importance of these activities to ensure the future of the country in the field of science and technology. In conclusion, the Committee strongly recommends closer interactions between the Turkish funding agencies and the particle physics research community to optimise the scientific and technological return of Turkey s Associate Member State status at CERN. In closing, on behalf of ECFA, the ECFA Chair thanked the Turkish particle physics community and the hosting universities, Bogazici University and Bilgi University, for their hospitality. b. Romania, March 2018 It was a great pleasure for the European Committee for Future Accelerators (ECFA) to visit Romania on 23 and 24 March The following brief summary of recommendations was provided to the policy makers. The committee recognises and is impressed by the significant contributions of researchers at Romanian universities and national R&D institutes to the international field of particle physics. The committee greatly appreciates the establishment of the International Scientific Advisory Board with a mandate to help steer the research community. The committee recommends that the government re-establish stable annual financial support so that particle physics researchers can continue to compete internationally, with commitments generally based on longterm planning. The committee recommends that the relevant entities in Romania take all necessary steps towards research-based learning and training by exploring synergies between universities and research institutions. Based on their initial success, the committee recommends sustaining and potentially strengthening the support for industry liaison efforts between CERN and Romania. The committee recommends strengthening advanced education in particle physics so that new young talents can emerge, and defining steps to increase the number of physics teachers. The committee looks forward to ELI-NP becoming a fully operational research facility according to the traditional high standards of such institutions in Europe. In closing, on behalf of ECFA, the ECFA Chair thanked the Romanian particle physics community and the Romanian government for their hospitality.

7 CERN/SPC/ c. Austria, April 2018 It was a great pleasure for the European Committee for Future Accelerators (ECFA) to visit Austria on 6 and 7 April The following brief summary of recommendations was provided to the policy makers. The committee recognises the excellent achievements of researchers from Austrian institutions in the global particle physics community, both in the development of technology and in physics analyses. The fact that there is only one professor in experimental particle physics in the country is, however, an issue to address. The recently created Dark Matter research group is an excellent initiative with great potential, and we encourage you to sustain this. To sustain an innovation driven market, a matching investment in fundamental research should be aimed for. We encourage policy makers to create a programme for big science and medium size research projects, with transparent and international peerreview procedures. A national roadmap for large research infrastructures would provide support for these programmes. We note that the time is ripe for the scientific community and policy makers to start discussions to bring together researchers in the Vienna area at a central venue with adequate facilities. We sincerely congratulate the Austrian particle physics community on its impressively broad, exemplary and innovative outreach activities. In closing, and on behalf of ECFA, the ECFA Chair thanked the Austrian particle physics community and the Austrian government for their hospitality. d. Slovakia, May 2018 It was a great pleasure for the European Committee for Future Accelerators (ECFA) to visit Slovakia on 18 and 19 May The following brief summary of recommendations was provided to the policy makers. The committee confirms that the Slovak research community is making adequate use of the opportunities provided by CERN, notably through its participation in several experiments. In this context, the time is ripe to confirm Slovak core investments in the upgrade of the ATLAS experiment, in particular. The committee encourages the creation of additional funding programmes based on scientific excellence to support researchers in their pursuit of innovative ambitions. The committee recommends initiating a dialogue between funding bodies and researchers to establish an adequate and sustainable level of technical and computing personnel to support the research. The successes of the industry liaison and outreach efforts are to be applauded and the committee advises Slovakia to explore ways of using

8 6 CRN/SPC/1111 these accomplishments to strengthen science education as a whole in Slovakia. The committee feels that the Slovak particle physics community should become more international and suggests that postdoctoral mobility programmes be created as an avenue to tenured positions. In closing, and on behalf of ECFA, the ECFA Chair thanked the Slovak particle physics community and the Slovak government for their hospitality. 4. Ongoing and initiated working groups, workshops and panels ECFA-initiated working groups and panels, as well as some workshops relevant in the context of future colliders, are listed below. a. Detector R&D In 2016, ECFA created a detector R&D panel to review detector development efforts for future projects. The panel is aimed at providing advice on detector development efforts for projects in their preliminary and preparatory phases. It helps to create coherence in global detector R&D efforts by encouraging synergies between different activities and advising funding agencies on request. The panel has only a reviewing and advisory role. It does not assume any coordination of the R&D programmes, nor does it take part in any science policy decisions. The panel has prepared a survey, with the aim of providing input for the process of updating the European Strategy for Particle Physics. The survey will contribute to assessing the deployment and strength of R&D activities in astroparticle, neutrino, nuclear and particle physics in Europe. It is also aimed at elucidating the opportunities created by current and emerging technologies and the potential for greater synergies between R&D activities. The questionnaire contains about 25 questions relating to detector R&D and should take about minutes to complete. Researchers not active in detector R&D are also invited to participate. b. Recognition of individual achievements in large collaborations ECFA acknowledges the importance of the correct recognition of individual achievements and affirms the challenges therein when dealing with scientific collaborations of between one hundred and many thousands of researchers. Recently, a working group has been created within the role and responsibility of ECFA to verify the current status of the recognition of individual achievements in large collaborations, with the aim of providing recommendations as input for the update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics. At its meeting at ALBA, PECFA heard the outcomes of a survey of the leaders of 29 CERN-based or CERN-recognised experiments in particle,

9 CERN/SPC/ nuclear, astroparticle and astro- physics. Encouragingly, the leaders of these collaborations declared our efforts to be highly appreciated, timely and welcome. Therefore, we are convinced that the community is open-minded, ready for a profound dialogue on the topic and receptive to recommendations. Mitigating the feeling of being a small fish in a big pond and promoting those who take action rather than just talking about doing so were among the key aspects raised. Conference talks were mentioned as key opportunities for early-career researchers in particular to demonstrate their talents, provided that the presentations are not forced into a pre-defined or expected blueprint. If the bridges between individual achievements and the world outside the collaboration are to be as short and transparent as possible, a system relying significantly on personal recognition statements from individual collaboration members is not ideal. Several possible alternatives to the alphabetical author list that might better highlight individual contributions to publications were discussed. Producing public internal notes could be an appropriate method. Collaborations are taking effective steps to implement a system that enables the voices of early-career researchers in particular to be heard. Optimal recognition systems, where efforts and innovations are matched with suitable individual rewards, will surely attract more new researchers to the field. The report served to inform the subsequent panel debate, moderated by Manfred Krammer (CERN), which continued with reflections on the topics. The ECFA working group will launch a community-wide survey to determine how these topics are perceived. The survey will be distributed widely and broad participation is essential if we are to make progress on this important topic. The objective is to provide input for the update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics. c. Software for data analysis Developing optimal data analysis techniques for particle physics experiments is vital to our community, as is continuous dialogue between software experts and analysers. Worldwide, several initiatives are under way to study this topic, resulting in, for example, the HEP Software Foundation s white paper. In this context, Andrey Ustyuzhanin (Yandex School of Data Analysis) gave a presentation at the PECFA meeting at ALBA on the evolution of software for data processing and analysis. Software architectures need a strong basis in order to sustain developments over many years. Strategic choices must be made with foresight, in collaboration with developers and users. Graeme Stewart (CERN) presented an overview of the challenges and benefits of these opportunities for particle physics, with a focus on end-to-end optimisation. Our community is going through a paradigm shift in which we are starting to remove some RAW data and trust the data analysis structures. Will data analysis become the work of software engineers, interfaced with simplified toolboxes for users? Based on an initial view of the potential future opportunities and challenges relating to analysis tools, from trigger and reconstruction to selection and estimation, the ECFA working group will ascertain how the particle physics community can best prepare itself and how well we are currently preparing. With the help of RECFA members, the working group will collect a census of HEP software professionals, either with a

10 8 CRN/SPC/1111 software engineering degree (or equivalent) or with expert experience in the field. This information might also be relevant to the strategic discussions in the context of the European Strategy for Particle Physics. d. Joint working group with ApPEC and NuPECC: diversity charter Diversity is an important aspect for all organisations, including the scientific organisations and collaborations within our community. Diversity charters can encourage steps to be taken towards diversity in a coherent way across a community. For example, inviting the scientific collaborations and/or laboratories within our field to sign such a charter, which would commit the signatory entity to engage in a typically long-term process of actively encouraging diversity within the structures of the collaboration/laboratory. A joint working group between ApPEC, ECFA and NuPECC has been created to explore this avenue. e. Joint working group with ApPEC and NuPECC: joint seminar NuPECC and ApPEC have many elements in common with ECFA, scientifically, technically and in the organisation of our research. Organising a joint ApPEC- ECFA-NuPECC seminar every three years, very similar to the triennial ICFA seminars, with a focus on particle physics, could be a desirable option. The seminar would explore scientific and technical achievements and upcoming challenges, as well as potential synergies and organisational, outreach and valorisation aspects. A joint working group between ApPEC, ECFA and NuPECC has been created to explore this avenue. f. The International Linear Collider Workshop was held in Strasbourg (France) on October The programme is available at The workshop was devoted to the study of the physics case for a high-energy linear electron-positron collider, taking into account the recent results from the LHC, and to reviewing the progress in the detector and accelerator designs for both the ILC and CLIC projects. The event represented an important step before the start of the European Strategy update process. g. The fourth Annual Meeting of the Future Circular Collider Study was held in Amsterdam (the Netherlands) on 8-13 April The programme is available at FCC Week featured a scientific programme, an industrial partnership programme and exhibition and an innovation poster session. The scientific programme featured plenary sessions on Monday and Friday and four parallel sessions on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The Monday plenary sessions gave an overview of the study s progress in the morning and keynote speakers highlighted particular advances and strategic programmes in the afternoon. The Friday morning plenary session provided a summary of the week. The parallel

11 CERN/SPC/ sessions were opportunities for intersectoral and expert knowledge exchange between the different science and technology domains covered by the study. FCC, EuroCirCol and EASItrain governance bodies met during the week to monitor and steer the advancement of the work programme. A dedicated poster session programme served as a platform to highlight advances that are relevant to the study s progress, have potential for technological breakthroughs to enable a frontier particle accelerator infrastructure, and may have significant societal and industrial impacts. h. The workshop on the physics of the HL-LHC and perspectives at HE-LHC was held at CERN on June The programme is available at This was the second in a series of meetings, running throughout 2018, with plenary events and intermediate periods of working group activities. The main goal of the workshop was to review, extend and further refine our understanding of the physics potential of the High-Luminosity LHC. The workshop aimed to stimulate new ideas for measurements and observables, to extend the LHC s discovery reach, to improve the modelling of LHC phenomena towards measurements at ultimate precision, and to prepare to exploit the HL-LHC data to the fullest possible extent. The workshop also provided the opportunity to begin a more systematic study of physics at the HE-LHC, a new pp collider in the LHC ring with CM energy in the range of 27 TeV. 5. ECFA and international relations ECFA is represented in several international and topical committees through its Chair. The Chair represents the interests of the European particle physics community and serves as a link between ECFA and a given committee. Within the reporting period, the following is worth noting. a. ICFA ( ) The International Committee for Future Accelerators (ICFA) has as its mission to facilitate international collaboration in the construction and use of accelerators for high-energy physics. ICFA was created in 1976 by IUPAP. It is composed of directors of leading international particle physics laboratories and representatives of the worldwide particle physics community. In total, ICFA has 16 members. ICFA had its 80th meeting in Ottawa (Canada) on 7 November 2017, its 81st meeting in Cambridge (UK) on 9-10 March 2018 and its 82nd meeting in Seoul (Korea) on 8 July In 2018, Geoffrey Taylor (Melbourne, Australia) replaced Joachim Mnich (DESY, Germany) as Chair of ICFA. After its 80th meeting in Ottawa, ICFA issued the ICFA statement on the ILC operating at 250 GeV as a Higgs boson factory : The discovery of a Higgs boson in 2012 at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN is one of the most significant recent breakthroughs in science and marks a major step forward in fundamental physics. Precision studies of the Higgs boson will further deepen our understanding of the most fundamental laws of matter and its interactions. The International Linear Collider (ILC) operating at 250 GeV center-of-mass

12 10 CRN/SPC/1111 energy will provide excellent science from precision studies of the Higgs boson. Therefore, ICFA considers the ILC a key science project complementary to the LHC and its upgrade. ICFA welcomes the efforts by the Linear Collider Collaboration on cost reductions for the ILC, which indicate that up to 40% cost reduction relative to the 2013 Technical Design Report (500 GeV ILC) is possible for a 250 GeV collider. ICFA emphasises the extendibility of the ILC to higher energies and notes that there is large discovery potential with important additional measurements accessible at energies beyond 250 GeV. ICFA thus supports the conclusions of the Linear Collider Board (LCB) in their report presented at this meeting and very strongly encourages Japan to realize the ILC in a timely fashion as a Higgs boson factory with a center-of-mass energy of 250 GeV as an international project 1, led by Japanese initiative. b. ICFA seminar The ICFA seminar took place in Ottawa (Canada) on 6-9 November The programme is available via this link: ICFA seminars take place every three years, with the aim of bringing together government officials involved in strategic decisions for high-energy physics (HEP), representatives of the major funding agencies, the directors of major HEP laboratories and leading scientists from all of the regions with HEP activity. c. ICFA and LCB matters The Linear Collider Board (LCB) typically meets on the occasion of ICFA meetings. During its meeting in Cambridge (UK) on 9 March 2018, the board proactively discussed what it would like to see included later in 2018 in a potential statement from the Japanese government on the topic of the ILC 250 GeV project. At its meeting on 9 July 2018 in Seoul (Korea), the board continued this discussion and noted initial preparatory thoughts on how to proceed upon the appearance of a statement from the Japanese government. Reports were presented on the progress of major linear collider projects, in particular the ILC and CLIC, including the documents that the community plans to submit for the update process of the European Strategy for Particle Physics. d. EPS-HEPP ( ) The ECFA Chair is an invited member of the EPS-HEPP board. The upcoming EPS-HEPP conference will be held in Ghent (Belgium) on July A joint EPS-ECFA session will be included in the programme, with the focus to be defined, but relating to the process of updating the European Strategy for Particle Physics. 1 In the LCB report, the European XFEL and FAIR are mentioned as recent examples of international projects.

13 CERN/SPC/ e. ApPEC ( ) The ECFA Chair is an invited member of the General Assembly of ApPEC. In early 2018, ApPEC released its European Astroparticle Physics Strategy ( Laura Baudis, professor of physics at the University of Zurich (Switzerland) has been appointed by the ApPEC General Assembly as the new Chair of the ApPEC Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC), commencing in June At the same General Assembly, Jocelyn Monroe, from Royal Holloway University London, was elected as deputy Chair. f. NuPECC ( The ECFA Chair is an Observer member of NuPECC. In late 2017, NuPECC released its long-range plan ( Marek Lewitowicz from GANIL (France) was appointed as the new Chair and Eberhard Widmann from the Stefan Meyer Institute for Subatomic Physics (Austria) was appointed as deputy Chair. 6. Schedule of upcoming ECFA meetings RECFA will visit the Netherlands on October RECFA and PECFA meetings will be held at CERN on November The Plenary ECFA meeting is scheduled for Thursday, November 15 and Friday, November 16. During the full morning of Thursday, November 15, a workshop has been organised to disseminate the results of the ECFA survey on the recognition of individual achievements in large collaborations. The afternoon session will start with brief PECFA standing items, followed by a 1.5-day session including comprehensive overviews of all of the main future collider projects in and beyond Europe and related accelerator technologies. The venue will be the main auditorium at CERN. In addition to reserved seats for registered ECFA members, the auditorium will be open to the community. In due course, a detailed agenda will be communicated. The presentations will be webcast and the recordings will be shared with the community. RECFA visits to Spain, Slovenia and Poland are being planned for the first half of 2019, and to Cyprus for the second half. A RECFA meeting will be held on the occasion of the EPS-HEPP conference in Ghent (Belgium) in July A Plenary ECFA meeting will be held at CERN, probably in November 2019.