Committee on Science, Engineering and Public Policy

1
Scientific Community Perspectives
Physics Barry C Barish

• Committee on Science, Engineering and Public
  Policy
• Board on Physics and Astronomy
•  
• Committee on Setting Priorities for NSFs Large
  Research Facility Projects
•  
• May 19-20, 2003
• The National Academies
• Keck Center

2
NSFs Large Research Facility Projects in
Physics The first large NSF facility in physics
Cornell Electron Storage Ring (CESR) --
high-luminosity 66 GeV electron-positron
collider at Cornell University.
LIGO
The centerpiece of NSF High Energy Physics
Program for many years
IceCube

• B Physics
• Accelerator Physics
• Synchrotron Radiation -- CHESS

LHC
CLEO Collaboration NSF DoE 20 research
groups 125 collaborators
3
Research in Fundamental Physics

• We have many tools at our disposal from forefront
  accelerators to satellites in space to
  experiments deep under the surface of the earth.
  

Accelerator LHC Magnet
Subterranean The Soudan Mine
Space
Hard priority choices must be made!
4
NSFs Large Research Facility Projects in
Physics forefront of physics research
Energy Frontier
Gravitational Waves
LIGO
LHC
Rare Decays
Highest Energy Particle Astrophysics
RSVP
IceCube
5
Direct Detectionof Gravitational Waves
Gravitational Wave Astrophysical Source
Terrestrial detectors LIGO, TAMA, Virgo,AIGO
Detectors in space LISA
6
LIGO A New Window on the Universegravitational
waves
Gravitational Waves from the most astrophysical
violent events black hole collisions
supernovae gamma ray bursts
7
LIGO The Early Universe
Murmurs from the Big Bang
Cosmic Microwave background
WMAP 2003
8
LIGOgravitational wave detection

• The idea for using interferometers put forward in
  1970s
• Ambitious RD technology development and
  demonstration program supported by NSF in the
  1980s
• Project construction approved in 1994
  construction completed in 2000, on cost and
  schedule
• NSF made a priority choice to support LIGO and to
  terminate the development program for future
  resonant bars
• LIGO scientific collaboration now consists of 30
  research groups, 7 countries, 400 scientists
• Performance is approaching design goals and the
  initial science results have been recently
  reported
• Future upgrades are being developed as
  international partnership (including PPARC)

9
LIGO Sensitivity Livingston 4km Interferometer
May 01
Jan 03
10
LIGOgravitational wave detection

• The idea for using interferometers put forward in
  1970s
• Ambitious RD technology development and
  demonstration program supported by NSF in the
  1980s
• Project construction approved in 1994
  construction completed in 2000, on cost and
  schedule
• NSF made a priority choice to support LIGO and to
  terminate the development program for future
  resonant bars
• LIGO scientific collaboration now consists of 30
  research groups, 7 countries, 400 scientists
• Performance is approaching design goals and the
  initial science results have been recently
  reported
• Future upgrades are being developed as
  international partnership (including PPARC)

11
LHC The Energy Frontierthe origin of mass
The Standard Model prefers a Higgs boson mass of
less than 200 GeV, well within reach of the LHC
12
LHC New Quantum Dimensionssupersymmetry

•  
• Unifies matter with forces.
• Every known particle has a supersymmetric
  partner, waiting to be discovered atthe TeV
  scale.

13
U.S. LHC Detector Role

• Joint DoE / NSF Funding Oversight
• Two detectors Atlas, CMS
• U.S. Atlas Leadership at Columbia University
  (NSF)
• U.S. detector contributions are on time and
  schedule
• Outstanding Outreach Program

14
LHCthe energy frontier

• Highest priority scientific frontier of particle
  physics
• HEPAP subpanel reports, ECFA, etc - worldwide
  consensus
• U.S. participation in LHC
• capitalizes on large U.S. RD investments for SSC
• enables the U.S.community to do research at the
  forefront of particle physics.
• Joint participation through NSF and DoE on a
  large international project
• Highest priority project by HEPAP subpanels in
  the 1990s
• U.S. detector construction is on schedule and
  cost
• New development Grid Computing can enable the
  NSF university community to effectively analyze
  data from their home institutions

15
IceCube Point Sources of High Energy Neutrinos
Extragalactic objects such as active galactic
nuclei (AGN) and gamma ray bursts
(GRBs) Galactic sources, such as pulsars and
supernovae, are also possible sources.
16
IceCube Sensitivity to Dark Matter
Neutralinos are good candidates for dark matter.
They may be indirectly detected indirectly
through their annihilations in the Sun. The
produced particles subsequently decay and yield
high energy neutrinos.

• Complementary to Direct Searches
• Sensitive to higher masses
• Sensitive to spin-dependent
• neutralinos interactions
• Similar sensitivity to direct searches

17
IceCubehigh energy neutrinos

• Early developments under water (DUMAND)
• South Pole development under ice Amanda
• Priority choice Ice chosen technically due to
  implementation and characteristics of ice vs
  water.
• New field Particle Astrophysics
• Emerging area of physics being initiated in NSF
  physics
• High Priority given to science opportunities of
  km3 scale high energy neutrino detector in
  Quarks to Cosmos and recent NRC report
  Neutrinos and Beyond
• Project
• RD and engineering development has led to a
  technically more robust project digital readout
  and new ice drill
• NSF Polar Program project with science support
  through Physics.
• Pre-construction funding has been a problem

18
Very Rare Processes

• Some very rare processes probe CP violation in
  the strange quark system.
• Lepton flavor violation and proton decay are
  consequences of grand unification!

K0 ??p0?nn? KOPIO???
?? ??e?? MECO?
19
RSVP Very Rare Processesprobes beyond the
standard model

• Scientific opportunity to discovery potential for
  new physics by seeing forbidden decay channels
• RSVP to be implemented (leveraged) on a DoE
  accelerator facility investment -- Brookhaven
  AGS
• Scientific Community Role
• Reviewed and approved through the AGS Program
  Advisory Committee, then proposed to NSF
• NSF Review panel recommended for MREF
• Recent HEPAP subpanel supports RSVP
• New HEP priority committee, P5, will establish
  relative priorities of such projects among other
  HEP projects in future
• Pre-construction support is a problem

20
Setting Priorities for Large NSF
Facilitiesperspectives from physics community

• Large projects are a crucial element in research
  at the forefront of physics
• Large variety of projects and areas of physics
• The science community must play the key role in
  making the hard priority choices in physics
• Scientific assessments are being done in the
  community
• Priority setting also is done and being improved
  P5
• NSF reviews in physics have strong community
  input
• Priority setting for physics projects vs other
  possible NSF initiatives is done and must be done
  by the NSF

21
Setting Priorities for Large NSF
Facilitiesperspectives from physics community

• Interagency and international projects are
  becoming the norm and must be strongly supported
• Large Projects Birth to Death
• Enabling RD -- The most promising new possible
  scientific projects need to be nurtured to
  develop techniques and determine feasibility and
  costs.
• Pre-construction support is essential to optimize
  technology, minimize risks, minimize costs and
  develop a robust management
• Construction is well managed by the NSF good
  record on cost/schedule and especially on
  facility performance.
• Operations must be planned for each large
  project, but it is crucial to recognize that this
  is the research component of any project and is
  less predictable. Flexibility must exist to
  support evolving needs for the most successful
  projects and to be able to support new
  developments and opportunities.