NSF announces R&D Funding for DUSEL Physics Experiments

Today in Maury Goodman's Long-baseline news email it is reported:

NSF Preparing to Fund Underground R&D in FY07 Contingent on appropriate budget allocations and NSF approval, the NSF Physics Division is preparing to allocate funds in FY07 for detector-related R&D for underground, DUSEL-related physics experiments and related applications. For more information, see the url's below, which contain a description of the NSF Particle and Nuclear Astrophysics program, and a presentation given by the NSF DUSEL Program Manager for Physics, Jon Kotcher, during a recent visit to the two candidate underground sites. Deadline for proposals will be September 2006. More information will be distributed as it becomes available at: http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5633&org=PHY
http://neutrino.lbl.gov/Homestake/NSF_site_visit/       or
http://nngroup.physics.sunysb.edu/husep/KotcherDUSELOverviewMar06Sites.pdf (See Slide 14)

This is the call for R&D proposals we heard about during the NSF "site visit" at the end of March. I encourage you all to begin thinking about proposals for detectors and experiments for DUSEL. Remember that the NSF also discussed that they will have made the final down select by ~ the Fall of 2006. So our future as DUSEL should be better established at the same time we are applying for these funds. At the NSF visit numbers on the order of $6M were being discussed, perhaps 1/2 of this sum would be reserved for the Technical Design Report (TDR) and the rest would be made available for the physics detector R&D. We can hope that earth science, biology, and engineering will be equally successful in the coming months in stimulating ideas for DUSEL.

Homestake and Henderson Present to HEPAP Particle Physics Project Planning Panel (P5)

As part of the HEP planning process, the P5 panel met at Fermi Lab. P5 has been asked to construct a roadmap for the coming decade for particle physics. They heard presentations from FNAL (Oddone), neutrinoless double beta decay (EXO), neutrino properties experiments (NOvA and Daya Bay), DUSEL, Homestake and Henderson, as well as Sadoulet's S-1 work, and finally Dark Matter (CDMS, Xenon) . You can find copies of the presentations at:
http://www.fnal.gov/directorate/program_planning/P5/P5_Apr2006/ P5_Agenda.html

Nuclear Physic's Long Range Planning Process

Every ~ 5 years the US Nuclear Physics community (DOE and NSF) establishes its long range plan. The process includes the important step of gathering community input. This is usually accomplished at town meetings and pre-town meetings. At the Dallas APS meeting last week, this process was announ ced. Here is the announcement from the APS:

2007 NSAC LONG RANGE PLAN -- DALLAS DISCUSSION

The Nuclear Science Advisory Committee, NSAC, is expecting to receive a charge from the DOE and NSF this summer to develop a Long Range Plan, LRP, with a report due near the end of 2007. In the past the DNP has organized town meetings in order to provide community input into the process. We except to follow the same practice if there is an NSAC charge this summer.

The organization of the LRP town meetings will be discussed at the DNP Town Meeting to be held as a component of the the APS April 2006 Meeting in Dallas, TX, 21-25 April. The Town Meeting follows the DNP Busine ss Meeting, which begins at 17:30 on 24 April in the Hyatt Regency Hotel in the Landmark B room. We would like to have your input into the process and encourage you to join us at the Town Meeting and express your ideas and opinions.

The focused meetings will likely take place in the Fall 2006. In the previous plan there were three separate town meetings, one was concerned with Astrophysics, Neutrinos and Fundamental Symmetries. It appears we will follow this model again. The white papers and summaries from these meetings are fed into the LRP process. In the 2002 Long Range Plan, DUSEL figured very prominently (high priority for a mid-scale project). You can obtain the previous LRP at:
http://dnp.nscl.msu.edu/2002_lrp.pdf

Recommendation 3 - 2002 LRP

We strongly recommend immediate construction of the world's deepest underground science laboratory. This laboratory will provide a compelling opportunity for nu clear scientists to explore fundamental questions in neutrino physics and astrophysics.

Recent evidence for neutrino mass has led to new insights into the fundamental nature of matter and energy. Future discoveries about the properties of neutrinos will have significant implications for our understanding of the structure of the universe. An outstanding new opportunity to create the world's deepest underground laboratory has emerged. This facility will position the U.S. nuclear science community to lead the next generation of solar neutrino and double- beta-decay experiments.

These meetings are an excellent opportunity to make the case for underground science and make sure it receives the appropriate attention in the coming years. Since the 2002 LRP was written we have learned a great deal more about neutrinos (SNO and KamLAND have reported results, WMAP has estimated a total neutrino mass, ...). W e have had several critical committees report on the important of neutrinos: the APS Neutrino Matrix, the Neutrino Scientific Assessment Group (NuSAG) to name a pair. The scientific case for a deep underground lab is even stronger now than in 2007. Your active participation in the town meetings and the subsequent meetings developing the LRP is strongly encouraged.