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The Underground will offer an exciting opportunity to
illuminate the dark side of Earth, life, and the cosmos. It will allow us to answer fundamental physics questions as to
the nature of dark matter, the properties of the neutrinos and the stability of matter. The Underground will provide the unique
opportunity for the development of an underground accelerator laboratory for the measurement of low energy stellar
reaction processes that defines the various stages of stellar evolution. It will provide a unique observatory to explore
the microbial processes and evolution under our planet's surface and the complex connection between tectonics, rock
properties and multifaceted reaction and transport phenomena. It will enable a dramatic improvement underground
construction, resource extraction and environmental remediation industries. The Underground will also provide unique opportunities
for cross-disciplinary education and outreach and for involvement of minority-serving institutions and local communities.
Fourteen working groups have been identified and two coordinators were chosen for each. The charge of
these working groups is to
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Summarize the scientific opportunities: What are the big
questions that can be addressed by Underground in a unique way?
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Develop roadmaps establishing the likely evolution of the subfields and the succession of generic
experiments or experimental/observational facilities. The working groups will obviously look into the
results of previous workshops and reports and focus on missing components-important aspects not yet studied,
points of disagreements, etc. Very likely, these will be the medium- and long-range projections.
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Participate in the definition of the infrastructure requirement matrices and fill them for each discipline.
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Work with other working groups to identify "modules" (set of generic experiments with similar or
compatible infrastructure requirements).
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Identify within each discipline the most significant education and outreach opportunities.
The specific charge to the Nuclear Astrophysics Working Group is to
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Identify low energy nuclear reactions of importance for Nuclear Astrophysics which would benefit most from a
low level environment of an underground laboratory situated in Underground.
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Discuss the relative merits of a light ion accelerator and a heavy ion accelerator for inverse kinematics reactions.
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Motivate the design and development of detection systems which combine high efficiency and selectivity.
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Interact with other working groups to define experimental modules with common experimental needs.
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