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20 May 1998
CERN management has clearly expressed its opinion that a stronger, well-funded collaboration is necessary before FELIX can be reconsidered. This predicament is further complicated by the general situation at CERN, including in particular the shortfalls in resources for the accelerator and technical sectors as well as the already approved experiments. We thus believe that it is opportune for FELIX to "lie low" for a while, as far as CERN is concerned, and await further developments.
On the other hand, efforts should continue to enlarge and strengthen the collaboration, as well as to try to pursue those aspects of the physics agenda which may be accessible at other accelerators in the interim. (This has been the subject of previous messages, relating, for example, to peripheral collisions at RHIC- see the FELIX web page for the appropriate link.)
Another possibility is to pursue forward physics at HERA. This is the subject of the remainder of this message.
After a presentation of FELIX at the DIS98 workshop in Brussels, several discussions took place with representatives of the two major experiments at HERA (H1 and ZEUS) regarding a possible future collaboration with FELIX. Some of the detector developments for FELIX, such as GEM chambers, Si detectors and forward calorimeters, could eventually be used in an upgrade program at HERA and could also be tested there.
A meeting will take place at DESY on June 12 to further pursue these matters. It will be beneficial if interested FELIX collaborators, particularly those actively working on forward detectors, could participate in these discussions and give a presentation about their detector developments. You will find the announcement of the meeting at the bottom of this message. We hope for an active participation in this meeting - it may be very important for the future of FELIX.
With our best regards,
Karsten Eggert and Cyrus Taylor
>> Dear Colleague, >> >> We have the pleasure to invite you to a meeting devoted to prospects >> of forwards physics at HERA, and in particular possible upgrades of the >> present forward detectors after the luminosity upgrade of year 2000. >> The meeting will be held at DESY, on Friday, June 12, starting at >> 10:00, in seminar room 4b. >> >> This invitation comes as a result of discussions which started at the >> meeting on diffraction at Heidelberg last year, continued at Rio and >> developed particularly at the DIS98 Workshop, between HERA physicists >> and members of the FELIX collaboration. The physics prospects and the >> detector ideas put forward for the LHC by Bjorken and the FELIX >> collaboration are appealing to many of us. Unfortunately, as you know, >> a (hopefully temporary) decision has been taken by CERN not to support >> FELIX, at least presently. >> >> In this context, it has been felt useful to propose a joint meeting >> of HERA physicists, members of the FELIX Collaboration, and other >> interested colleagues, in order to exchange experience, provide mutual >> information on present realisations and projects, and consider possible >> prospects for a collaboration centered, in a first stage, on forward >> physics and the upgrade of forward detectors at HERA. This meeting will >> also be an opportunity to establish contact between people possibly >> interested in a FELIX-like collaboration, in particular among HERA >> physicists. >> >> The draft agenda will cover the following topics: >> 1. Status and prospects for the FELIX project. >> 2. Physics motivations for forward physics at HERA, after the luminosity >> upgrade. >> 3. Status of the existing H1 and ZEUS forward detectors, especially in >> the context of the luminosity upgrade. >> 4. Status of detector research and development for FELIX. >> 5. Beam line design for the luminosity upgrade, both at short and long >> distances from the interaction regions - presentations by the machine >> experts and by the experts from the experiments. >> 6. Other proposals / plans / ideas for new / upgraded detectors at HERA. >> >> The main goals of this first meeting are to clarify if there exists >> a real interest in improving the HERA forward detectors, in line with >> the prototypes and proposals by FELIX, if and under which technical >> conditions such an upgrade is feasible, and - if all goes well - how >> to proceed, in particular to prepare detailed studies. >> Abundant time will thus be kept for discussions, and the introductory >> talks will be kept short and rather informal and basically introductory. >> >> If you are interested to participate to the meeting, to make a >> contribution, or simply to be kept informed, can you please let it know >> to Pierre ? >> >> With our best regards, >> >> Albert DeRoeck (CERN-H1) deroeck@mail.desy.de >> Karsten Eggert (FELIX) karsten.eggert@cern.ch >> Pierre Marage (H1) marage@hep.iihe.ac.be >> Jim Whitmore (ZEUS) jjw@leps.phys.psu.edu