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| Nigel Lockyer |
Fermilab has always been an international laboratory. With the proposed Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility based here at Fermilab, we’re about to enter a bold new era of global cooperation.
This Friday, Dec. 12, Fermilab will host the second of two open meetings about LBNF. These meetings are a big step toward forming a strong collaboration with partners across the globe, with the goal of building the best neutrino experiment of its kind in the world.
Last Friday, the first of these meetings took place at CERN. We introduced CERN’s Director of Research Sergio Bertolucci as the interim chair of the International Institutional Board of the new collaboration, and we explained the organizational structure that we plan to put in place, with input and participation from international funding agencies. Rob Roser walked us through the current draft of the letter of intent for the experiment. Meeting participants discussed how to optimize the design of the experiment and started to discuss the scientific strategy. Many aspects of the experiment are still under discussion, and we are actively seeking input from all interested scientists. The goal is to finalize the letter of intent by Dec. 21 and submit it for review by the Fermilab Physics Advisory Committee, which will meet in January.
This Friday it’s our turn to host the second meeting, which has an agenda identical to the first one. It will be held in One West from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. All interested scientists, from graduate students to engineers to principal investigators, are encouraged to attend. Please register for the meeting so that we know approximately how many people to expect.
The meeting will be a chance to voice your questions and ideas. There will be a panel discussion with an extended Q&A. An agenda with call-in information can be found online.
The next major event in forming a new collaboration for long-baseline neutrino physics will be the PAC meeting on Jan. 15 and 16 at Fermilab. Sergio Bertolucci will present the letter of intent to the PAC on behalf of the nascent collaboration.