CERN Accelerating science

Dear Colleagues,

At it's 30 May 1996 meeting, the LHCC expressed the belief that the FELIX program of physics may form a part of the future LHCC experimental program, encouraged interested parties to work together, and urged that "any new experimental initiative" (FELIX) "should be consistent with the restricted resources likely to be available."

This statement was issued shortly before the question of the financing of the LHC was reopened, an issue which we greeted with some concern. In late October, we discussed these concerns with members of the CERN Directorate and the Chair of the LHCC. The reaction has been uniformly the same: FELIX has a "Green light" to write a Letter of Intent, and should do so expeditiously. Indeed, our impression is that interest in the diversity which FELIX can bring to the initial LHC physics program has increased.

This brings us to the question of the time-table for submission of the LoI. The provisional calendar for the LHCC for 1997 provides for meetings on 23-24 January, 13-14 March, 5-6 June, 10-11 July, 4-5 September, and 5-6 November. The early dates seem unrealistic to us, the July meeting was cancelled last year, and we have received significant (if not uniform) advice suggesting that waiting until the fall would be disadvantageous. This leads us to aim for submitting the LoI to the LHCC for consideration at their June meeting, a goal which we believe should be attainable.

Our rough time table is as follows: we plan to have a zeroth order draft, with some sections in good shape, but still with many gaping holes, by the mid of February. By sometime in mid March, we expect to have a first complete draft, and would like to have a general meeting to discuss this draft soon thereafter. Since documents must be submitted to the LHCC about a month in advance of the meeting, this will allow approximately one month for preparation of the final document.

You will find a provisional outline of the LoI here . Instructions for the write-up of the LOI can be found on the FELIX webpages.

Some of the groups have started to work and are beginning to generate text for the LoI. This is particularly true for the groups working towards defining the physics objectives.

Much of the work of the past eighteen months has been directed towards critical path issues such as those related to the magnet systems, and the integration of the detector into the LHC environment .These areas are in reasonably good shape, reflecting the significant work that has gone into making sure that we can really incorporate a full acceptance detector into the infrastructure and lattice of Intersection Region I4.

Conversely, issues not on the critical path of the past year, such as the tracking system and calorimetry, have received much less attention and are now on the critical path. Some preliminary work has been done to ensure genuine full acceptance, but significant additional work is called for. Studies of detector performance are in a similar situation. Trigger and DAQ has received only minimal attention.

In particular we need volunteers for the three different calorimeters (electromagnetic and hadronic) at the end cap, forward upstream and at zero degree,for the forward trackers along the beam pipe and in the Roman pots very forward,for a central Silicon tracker, and last not least for the detector simulation, including radiation (neutrons and photons) simulation. But help is also needed in all the other chapters. Some preliminary parameters for the detectors are listed on WWW.

We hope to have conveyed the following three messages in this letter:

• We have a "Green light" to submit a formal Letter of Intent for FELIX in 1997;

• We need you to help prepare the LoI in the coming months;

• We ask that you do one thing as soon as possible:
  Identify where you think you can make a significant contribution starting at January to the preparation of the LoI, and then send e-mail to one of us. We'd be more than happy to discuss your participation either by phone or e-mail. You'll find our coordinates at the bottom of this letter, or under Contact Persons on the FELIX web page.

There is thus substantial work that needs to be done. Please review the draft LoI and the FELIX webpages.

With your help, we are confident that FELIX will be ready to take data on day 1 of LHC operation.

Looking forward to a felicitous "FELIX" collaboration, Merry Christmas and a successful New Year.