Minutes of the ICE section
36th meeting on Wednesday 17/08/2011 (08:40-10:30, 6/2-004)
ICE members: Benoit Salvant (BS), Christian Hansen (CH), Carlo Zannini (CZ), Hugo Alistair Day (HD), Elena Benedetto (EB), Elias Metral (EM), Elena Wildner (EW), Frank Schmidt (FS), Giovanni Iadarola (GI), Giovanni Rumolo (GR), Jean-Luc Nougaret (JLN), Kevin Shing Bruce Li (KL), Nicolo Biancacci (NB), Nicolas Mounet (NM), Olav Ejner Berrig (OB), Tatiana Pieloni (TP), Werner Herr (WH), Xavier Buffat (XB).
Present/Excused: BS, CH, CZ, HD, EB, EM, EW, FS, GI, GR, JLN, KL, NB, NM, OB, TP, WH, XB, Alexey Burov, Raymond Wasef.
1) Newcomers / visitors
- None.
2) Comments on the minutes of the previous 35th meeting + Actions
- No comment.
3) General infos
- SL meeting:
- Outcome of the Sector retreat of August, 4th => Flexibility
posts, which are new posts, which will be attached to projects. In total, ~ 100
posts for the accelerator sector should be opened; 27 posts should be allocated
to the BE department: 13 in 2012 and 14 in 2013; 5 posts should be allocated to
ABP => Overall these are good news for us, as these posts come on top what was
already agreed in June (several posts this year + 2 in 2012).
- Matlab licenses: The limited number of licenses is an issue also for BI and
RF. They are paid by IT. GA sent an email to P.Charrue and F.Schmidt to follow
this with IT. E.Jensen said that there are clones of Matlab which are free, such
as SciLab and Octave. Octave seems to be used by several people but can be slow
(no compilation), no support etc.
=> Info from P. Charrue (http://engineering-software.web.cern.ch/engineering-software/products.php?p_name=82&p_type=overview and http://mathtools.web.cern.ch/node/13):
- We are strongly discouraged from starting any new projects based on MATLAB.
- The currently recommended options are to use Mathcad or Octave (both available on CMF) or to consider using the ROOT toolkit.
- News on the LHC:
- LHC 08:30 meeting:
- Bunch intensity pushed up to ~1.35e11.
- Average emittance ~2+ microns.
- Peak luminosity 2.2x1033 cm-2s-1 (fill 2025).
- Review of decisions taken during the mini-Chamonix => Again interest for low beta* (1 m) => Collisions with tighter collimators settings => Check the impact on the beam stability during some end-of-fill studies (should be no problem).
- Preparation of the next LHC MDs, in particular beam-beam and ecloud with 25 ns bunch spacing.
- HDWG meeting on Monday: Tutorial on ZBASE (BS) + a new data model for HEADTAIL.
- Request to compute the impedance for a new chamber for CMS => Being followed up by RaymondW and BS.
- KL is studying the effect of loss of longitudinal Landau damping with Alexey Burov.
4) Beta beams implementation at CERN (CH): pdf
- This is what CH presented at NUFACT11.
- BetaBeams (BB) at CERN is being studied all over the world.
- They were encouraged to really look at the implementation.
- Reminder: There is another RCS used only for betabeams.
- In the past it was decided to use only ~ 1% of the DR as duty factor = SF to suppress the atmospheric background in the experiment.
- Encouraging ion production progress towards required source rate: 18Ne production experiment scheduled at CERN.
- Wel l established beam preparation and acceleration: State of the art studies for a 60GHz ECR ongoing.
- Large θ13 (lasted results from T2K) shows prosperous possibilities for BB as it opens the door to go to a SF of ~ 2 or even 2.3% (instead of ~ 1%): Enough intensity can be merged and stored in the DR. More studies needed!
5) Outcome of Nufact11 (EW): ppt
- Summary WG3 (Elena Wildner, Alex Bogacz and Makoto Yoshida).
- 15 questions were asked between NUFACT10 and NUFACT11 and answered. In particular for beta-beams:
- Will the Beta Beam be possible in the CERN Complex? => Yes, the baseline beta beam is possible to implement.
- Verification of the 18Ne production for beta beams? => Tested experimentally.
- EUROnu:
- Objective: Compare SuperBeam, Beta Beam and Neutrino Factory Performance/Cost.
- CERN Strategy Group will get Result and take Decision?
- NUFACT workshop:
- Objective: Work on and discuss Neutrino physics & Facilities.
- This year: Panel Discussion with management => Result: we got back a number of questions from panel Answers from Acc. Phys. (see AnswersToQuestionsByNeutrinoPanelAtNufact11).
- Reminder: In the SuperBeams (SB) there is a contamination of muon neutrinos whereas with BetaBeams (BB) one has a pure beam of electron neutrinos for beta+ decay (and anti-electron neutrinos for beta- decay).
T2K & Minos: Theta13 large!!!
- The neutrino factory is not only studied within EUROnu (Europe). It is also studied internationally => IDS (International Design Study), started in fact under EUROnu. Note that the IDS report is already out.
- Reminder: Frejus tunnel is somewhere below the "Mont Blanc" (White Mountain).
- No people at CERN are working on superbeams but it is assumed that CERN is able to provide the ~ 4 MW beam on a target.
- Betabeams would use the same detectors as for superbeams (at least at the beginning).
- Reminder: the maximum of oscillation from electron neutrino to muon neutrino should be the same as from muon neutrino to electron neutrino if there is no CP violation.
- Proposal from C. Rubbia for sterile neutrinos.
- Idea from A. Rubbia: SPL + new PS (PS2 revival?)...
- EMMA is a machine running at Daresbury.
- Reminder: For the muon collider, the big issue is the cooling.
- They had to answer to the following question: What do you want?
- Neutrino factory, as with it we can do everything, but betabeams could also be very good.
- For all the facilities, it is a big quantum jump to install any of these machines.
- A combination SB + BB, with a SPL, would be a very good solution.
- Questions to be answered for NUFACT12:
1) What combination of proton beam energy and bunch length is the best compromise for integrated muon beam intensity?
2) Important to update the acceleration system of the beta beams from the source to the decay Ring.
3) The PS (space charge, instabilities).
4) The SPS (instabilities and RF).
5) Impact of possible high theta13 on the neutrino facilities, design parameters.
6) Operating high gradient normal conducting RF rf cavities in strong magnetic field; gradient degradation, effects of intense ionizing radiation traversing gas? Ongoing, vigorous experimental program under way at LBNL and MTA at Fermi (first experimental tests coming out).
7) Does energy deposition pose SC solenoid shielding problem for presently proposed proton drivers? Challenging problem, robust engineering solution being worked out.
8) Do we have a working Injection/Extraction scheme for NS-FFAG Rings? Working concept under study, specific component being modeled and optimized.
9) Is chromaticity correction sufficient to reduce the TOF problem for NS-FFAG? EMMA demonstrated device feasibility. Conceptual solution is being studied.
10) Target handling for Multi MW targets ? 1 MW target handling needs to be addressed.
11) Material property evolution with time (from radiation, strain & stress and temperature)? Appropriate material studies under way.
12) Modeling of pion production complete? Agreement between two models/codes (MARS and FLUKA) consistent within 10-20% with the HARP data.
13) How serious is power deposition in the structures after/around the target (horn, solenoids)? Quite significant. They are modelled accurately; adequate shielding provided.
14) Feasibility of mini-neutrino factory (low energy/intensity storage ring for short baseline measurement of cross-sections) VLENF conceptual design with large acceptance decay ring, Scaling FFAG option.
6) Actions to be taken for the next meeting
- Old actions.
7) Miscellaneous
- The next (37th) meeting will take place on 31/08/2011 => Agenda:
1) Raymond Wasef for his afternoon's defense in Grenoble (Headtail simulation studies of Landau damping through octupoles in the LHC),
2) Rehearsals of the 3 IPAC11 talks of the section: LHC ecloud (GR), LHC beam-beam (WH) and Euronu (EW).
- See preliminary agendas for the next meetings.
Minutes by E. Metral, 09/09/2011.