CERN-SPSC-2012-034 SPSC-107 19 November 2012 MINUTES on the 107th Meeting of the SPSC Held on Tuesday 23 October and Wednesday 24 October 2012 OPEN SESSION 1. Status and plans of the NA63 experiment Ulrik Uggerhoj 2. Status and plans of the UA9 experiment Walter Scandale 3. Status and plans of the NA61/SHINE experiment Michael Unger 4. Need for NA61/SHINE measurements Geoffrey Mills for the Fermilab neutrino programme 5. Status and plans of the CAST experiment Thomas Papaevangelou 6. Status and plans of the OSQAR experiment Miroslav Sulc CLOSED SESSION Present: CERN-SPSC-2012-034 / SPSC-107 01/02/2013 S. Bertolucci1), P. Bloch, H. Breuker, O. Cremonesi, M. Diehl, E. Falk, L. Favart, L. Gatignon, I. Irastorza, A. Jokinen, T. Lasserre, S. Maury, B. Panzer-Steindl, L. Ramello, M. Rozanska, C. Rembser (scientific secretary), E. Rondio, N. Severijns, C. Vallée (Chair), I. Wingerter-Seez, M. Wing 1) Present on Wednesday only Apologies: P. Collier, A. Denig, U. Wiedemann 1. MINUTES OF THE 106th MEETING OF THE SPSC HELD ON 26 JUNE AND 27 JUNE 2012 The minutes of SPSC106 were approved (CERN-SPSC-2012-024, SPSC- 106). 2. CHAIRMAN’S REPORT FROM RB201 The Chairman reported on the Research Board (RB) meeting, RB201. The following points were presented and, where necessary, discussed: 1) The SPSC congratulated the COMPASS Collaboration for the timely analysis of the 2010 and 2011 muon data, expressed its satisfaction on the progress of the experimental setup for the DVCS run, and mentioned its wish to see spectroscopy results published soon. 2) The observation of the second tau neutrino candidate by OPERA was reported and the Committee expressed its encouragements for further timely analysis of the data. 3) The SPSC expressed its satisfaction for the smooth operation of the ICARUS detector and continuous progress in the reconstruction and analysis methods, and showed first limits on sterile neutrinos recently obtained by the Collaboration. 4) The status of the review of the short baseline neutrino proposal was summarised and the committee recommended to set-up a joint working group with the accelerator division in order to define and optimise the beam conditions. 5) The SPSC presented the Expression of Interest for a Long Baseline Experiment LAGUNA-LBNO, and summarised the points currently under review. 6) The LOI for measurement of the anti-proton magnetic moment was presented, as well as the invitation to proceed towards a Technical Design Report of the experiment, including optimisation of the insertion of the set-up within the AD complex. 7) The SPSC reminded the recommendation of SPSC102 inviting to make all efforts to provide physics data to the Fixed Target experiments in 2014. The Research Board noted points 1), 2), 3), 5) and 7), and endorsed points 4) and 6). MATTERS ARRISING Following the European Strategy Workshop in Cracow, the Scientific Policy Committee has scheduled a special meeting on November 27th, for which the SPSC is requested to report on the status of its review of the short and long baseline neutrino projects. 3. STATUS OF ACCELERATORS S. Maury summarised the operation and performance of the injector accelerators and presented possible scenarios of the restart of the injectors for proton and ion beams to the North Area after the shutdown 2013/2014 (LS1). Both LINAC2 and the PS-Booster are operating with high efficiency and are delivering proton beams as requested from the experiments and beam tests. Also the PS is operating smoothly and the new PS power supply (POPS) is working fine. During the last two weeks the intensity of the PS beam for CNGS is increased with respect to what was reached in the months before. At the AD the total uptime for the experiments over the 2012 run is 95%, which together with the improved beam quality (more than 3*107 antiprotons per cycle) and high beam stability gives excellent conditions for the experiments. In parallel to the physics beam time, tests and preparations for ELENA and LS1 are carried out. The SPS delivers beams to the North Area, to CNGS, to the irradiation facility HiRadMat and to the LHC with high efficiency. Short interruptions were caused by perturbations of a 18kV power cell and a water leak. The LINAC3 and LEIR start-up for the heavy ion run and July/August 2012 ion beams were sent to the PS and SPS. LINAC3 and LEIR stopped operation afterwards and resumed operation middle of October 2012. Because of the delays for the NA61 experiment caused by problems with its magnet, see report by L. Gatignon, the ion programme of the NA61 experiment is shifted to take place in parallel to the LHC proton-ion run. Fragmented ion beams at 13*A GeV/c, 20*A GeV and 30*A GeV are scheduled from 3 December until 17 December 2012 and from 7 January until 11 February 2012. Concerning the restart of the injector accelerators after LS1, the following possible scenario was presented and discussed. During LS1 for the SPS and the North Area, the replacement of cables in the splitter area and in the Long Straight Section 1 (LSS1), which suffered from harsh radiation, is mandatory. The proposal is made to complete the replacement of the cables in the LSS1 area during the shutdown to be in time for the cold checkout of the SPS in summer 2014 and to have the preparation of the replacement in the splitter area until the commissioning of the SPS with beam starts. This scenario allows a proton run of the North Area from End of October until early December 2014. After this proton run, the replacement of the cables in the splitter area could be completed. For scheduling and technical reasons the run with argon ions for NA61 can take place early 2015 only. Preparations of the injectors for other ion species than argon can only take place after LS1, which implies that a run with xenon ions for NA61 can take place in 2015 or later. The Committee supports the efforts to aim for a restart of the injector accelerators for a first period of proton beam to the experimental areas in the second half of 2014. The SPSC recommends to aim for a period of argon ion running before the start of the 2015 proton run and supports the optimisation of the replacement work of the irradiated cables in the SPS splitter area to allow the 2015 proton run to start as early as possible. The Committee also recommends to further investigate the possibility of delivering high intensity beam to the COMPASS experiment at the end of 2014 without delaying the overall accelerator schedule. 4. STATUS OF EXPERIMENTAL AREAS L. Gatignon reported on the operation of the experimental facilities at the PS (East Area), AD and SPS (North Area and CNGS). The East Area operated smoothly and served a multitude of users (CLOUD, DIRAC, IRRAD, PEBS, CLAS12, OPERA, VHMPID, TOF, ITS, ALICE and several CMS, PANDA, ACORDE and PHOS groups). All AD experiments successfully took beam. The commissioning of the new ATRAP apparatus is advancing. The ASACUS experiment ended the 2012 programme for the CUSP trap and is for the remaining 2012 run focusing on spectroscopy of antiprotonic helium. The ACE experiment took data during one week in June and profited from a three days run period in September 2012. A new procedure has been implemented in the AD operation, which allows a very fast switch from nominal 100 MeV/c operation to the 500 MeV/c cycle which is required for the ACE experiment. From this new switch all experiments profit and there have been no stability problems in the AD performance. The ALPHA experiment successfully commissioned the new separate antiproton trap of the new apparatus. The setup and commissioning of the main trap will follow in the next weeks. The setup of the AEGIS experiment is progressing well. Antiprotons have been successfully trapped in June, all remaining equipment including the main 5T magnet were installed during the summer. The apparatus is ready for being setup with beam and to move towards antihydrogen production in November 2012. At the SPS North Area two vacuum problems in the transfer line from the SPS to the North Area caused serious problems and in total about one week of beam time was lost. One leak was found on a collimator protecting the splitter magnets, the second one was found on a bellow. A preliminary fix for the leak at the collimator has been made, however the collimator will be replaced during LS1. The bellow causing the second leak has been replaced successfully. The COMPASS experiment had a successful run with regular alternation of hadron and muon beams. On 17 September 2012 the experiment started its preparation for the DVCS run. The preparations were successfully made and the experiment is back into full physics data taking now. The NA61 experiment suffered from problems with the experiments magnet, a controls problem and a helium leak. Both problems were fixed however the NA61 experiment was ready for data taking only end of September 2012. As a consequence the heavy ion beam to the North Area is delayed until December 2012 and protons were send to the other experiments instead and beams were served to a large number of physics experiments and beam tests. The preparations for the NA62 Technical Run are progressing very well and everything is on schedule to send beam to the experiment from 29 October 2012 onwards. The CNGS beam line is operating very well and the proton beam intensity was raised early October from 1.5*1013 protons per extraction to 1.9*1013 protons.