Physics Department MeetingJanuary 26, 2012

Safety matters: Mike Zarcone

Department news: Tom L.

Q & A

Welcome to our new Department members

RBRC Chin-Hao Chen Research Associate

Administration Xiaofeng Guo Physics Associate II

Nuclear Theory Vladimir Skokov Research Associate

Lattice Gauge Theory Yu Maezawa Research Associate

RACF Guangwei Che Adv. Technology Engineer

Electronic Detector Grp. Elizabeth Worcester Research AssociateHarry Themann Assistant Physicist

RHIC Spin Kjeld Oleg Eyser Assistant Physicist

Advanced Accelerator Grp. Holger Witte Assistant Physicist

Awards and honors since our September meeting

Ruth Van de WaterFinalist: New York Academy of Sciences Blavatnik Award for young scientists

Craig WoodyIEEE FellowshipFor development of radiation detectors for HEP, NP, and Medical Imaging

Raju VenugopalanFullbright Senior Specialist Award:Lectures at Univ. of Cape Town, S. Africa

International Awards and Honors

Yasuyuki Akiba RBRC/RIKEN2011 Nishina Memorial Prize, Japan

Larry McLerranLiu Lianshou Chair, Central China Normal Univ.Honorary Ph. D., Peoples Republic of China

DOE Secretary’s Achievement Honor Award:BNL RHIC/ATLAS Computing Facility

Presented by Secretary Chu in Washington DC October 27, 2011

“Your accomplishments have allowed scientists to perform computations of unprecedented scope.”

U. S. ATLAS Hand-off

Howard GordonU.S. ATLAS Project Manager: 2005-2008Deputy Research/Operations Manager:2003-2012

Srini RajagopalanBeginning September 1, 2012:U.S. ATLAS Deputy Operations Manager

Big Picture Outlook: Challenging times

BNL 10-year strategic plan: http://www.bnl.gov/10yr-plan/

Not long ago, Congress passed legislation aimed at doubling the funding for NSF and DOE Office of Science over a period of ~ 10 years.

Recent Congressional action puts such plans on hold, at best.Flat budgets are the new normal.

Meanwhile, BNL has moved ahead with the Blueprint strategy:• A vision for substantial growth of the Laboratory• New directorates, with emphasis of “Discovery to Deployment”• Re-organized, expanded support and infrastructure activities

(e.g. IFM, deployed services in HR, finance, ESH)

Near-term result: costs for support activities and new start-ups exceed revenues from overhead charges. This has precipitated the recent call for voluntary retirements. This was not meant to be a precursor to further layoffs.

NPP

Photon Sciences

GARS

ELS

BNL’s Revenue Sources

Nuclear Physics outlook: FY 2012 - 2013

RHIC Run 12 is now starting, expecting ~20 cryoweeks (optimal would be ~26 cryoweeks)• 200 GeV and 500 GeV spin runs• Heavy ion runs with first use of EBIS as pre-injector for RHIC

[Uranium-Uranium or Cu-Au collisions]• First data with PHENIX FVTX; STAR FGT engineering run; MTD prototype

Very difficult budgets for the Nuclear Theory groups, despite world-class ranking in recent reviews. We are working with DOE to ameliorate this.

Final push to prepare eRHIC designs and science case for the Nuclear Physics Long Range Plan discussion. But, see next item…

The President’s FY 2013 budget – to be presented next month – is thought to be “Challenging” for both Nuclear and High Energy Physics.

Tim Hallman (ONP Director) may be compelled to initiate a community-wide discussion of priorities if budget constraints preclude going ahead with all of the present plans for this decade:JLab 12 GeV operations + RHIC operations + FRIB construction

High Energy Physics outlook

The Daya Bay experiment has begun taking data: studying neutrino fluxes with big new underground detectors from nuclear reactors at a Chinese power plant complex.

Expect important results soon on the critical neutrino mixing paramter θ13

We are in a good position with ATLAS and Daya Bay Operations.

The CERN LHC continues to operate with record-setting luminosities, and should finish this year with data samples providing definitive statements on the existence of the Higgs or other exotic particles.

BNL plays a central role as host lab for the U.S. ATLAS collaboration, and the U.S. Tier 1 computing facility.

Ling Ao NPP

Ling Ao-ll NPP

Tunnel length: ~2700m

Daya Bay Near

Ling Ao Near

Far site

Water hall

LS hall

Daya Bay NPP

High Energy Physics outlook - 2Much of our present and planned support is dependent on projects that are still in the formative stages, for which there is considerable uncertainty.

The timing and scope of ATLAS upgrades remains uncertain.

The development of the Long Baseline Neutrino Experiment (LBNE) remains tumultuous.• The technology decision in favor of a liquid argon detector over the mainstream water cherenkov technique has just been made this month. A major change in the scope and organization of this project. We expect BNL to maintain a strong leadership presence.

• Details of funding and time-scale of this ~$1B project still await high level DOE decisions.

LSST has had successful preliminary reviews by NSF and DOE, but still needs construction approval, and significant funding, from both NSF and DOE

New Business: upcoming things for the Department

Physics Planning:In view of the many Big Picture issues to be resolved nationally in the next year or so, we will organize “Town Meeting” style workshops in both Nuclear and High Energy physics to discuss the Department’s plans and priorities. Probably in March or April.

Spotlight Awards:A change in our procedures for Spotlight Awards:At present, awards are considered one-by-one during the year as nominations arise.

For the future, a Department committee is being formed that will consider nominations on a twice-yearly basis.

RSL-2 construction

Phase I:Clean RoomLarge Seminar Room

The project is moving along on schedule

Phase II: 3-story wingDemolition and asbestos abatement is now beginning. Expect some interruption of A/C this spring, when chilled water plumbing is done.

Demolition and asbestos abatement should be done this month. Expect completion of Phase I in late May or June.

RSL- 2 Progress