Summary of the UK HARP Meeting held on Tuesday 1st May 2001 at RAL

1. Review of Assembly at CERN
   • Chariot & Rails: Everything is installed at CERN. Thanks to Mick Williams & Peter ... for driving parts out, and Richard for overseeing assembly, making screws etc. The equipment was surveyed into position and locked into place. It was pointed out that there are no locking plates, to stop the system tipping. This could be a problem when the TPC is inserted. Also the "equerres" fit against strips which were accurately located on the base plate. These may have to be removed for the TPC mounting. It may therefore be wise to pin the strips so that they can be reassembled in the same locations. Action: Rob to discuss these issues with Lucie at CERN.

   • Targets: Four more physics targets have been delivered to CERN - see list below. Targets have clear labels, and all targets, and data sheets, are now in a cupboard in the beam area. Chris reported on tests performed with the thick copper target. A survey showed that the heavy target was 0.8 mm below its nominal position, whereas the thin target had been about 0.3 above. Richard pointed out that the positioning should be defined by the fit of the support arm in the TPC end-plate. Since the latter is not yet in place, the above measurements should be taken as upper limits on the misalignment. Mario had observed the target change, and was worried about excessive force distorting the support arm. A "crutch" will be produced at CERN, to be fitted during target exchange. Instructions are needed, stressing aspects such as cleaning the support cap where it fits into the arm, and not twisting the cap during insertion. Richard will look into the use of a Teflon spray. It has been suggested that the labelled protective tube for the target currently in use should be placed in a suitable receptacle mounted, e.g., on the TPC end-plate, so that it is always clear which target is in use.
     Action: Richard, Chris & Giles to produce instructions; Richard to investgate Teflon spray.

2. Targets: We now have thin aluminium, copper, tin and lead targets and a thick copper target at CERN, in addition to the copper button and thin copper test target, and the plastic target with a hole for optical alignment. Thin beryllium, carbon and tantalum are at Sheffield ready for mounting. They will be ready for delivery to CERN by the end of May. Thick carbon, tantalum and lead have been ordered. Action: Richard to phone Chris Mihill at Testbourne to find delivery date for thick Tantalum.
   Thick aluminium has been added to the list again! Action: Rob to ensure the thick aluminium has been ordered.

   It was reported that K2K are making a combined target and support arm. Fitting this would mean removing the surveyed support arm, which does not seem sensible (though the same will apply when cryogenic targets are fitted). The very long K2K target will need a special arm, and the number of thicknesses to be provided is still not clear. Action: Giles will contact K2K people again.

   There is still no reply from MiniBooNe after about 6 months! Action: Giles will check with Vittorio next week if he has any news.

3. Software: Malcolm reported that software exists for the beam chambers, TPC, drift chambers, all calorimeters and cosmic wall. There have been problems with access to the data, so most work has been with Monte Carlo data. It is hoped that the Easter data will be available soon.

   Lara has worked on reconstructing tracks from the beam chambers. The ObjectConverter is not yet working, so the code is not fully tested. Reconstruction of points is ok.

   Simon has contributed to the reconstruction code for the drift chambers, forming duplets and performing approximate momentum estimation. This has also been hard to debug because of lack of data. Soon, MC data will be used to match TPC and DC tracks.

4. French Summer Student Paul reported that the student had been placed on a reserve list! We should go ahead with funding promised by Ken Peach. Paul will supervise in June, and Malcolm in July. Drift chamber alignment would form a suitable project.

5. Next Meeting provisionally arranged for Monday 25th June, in Oxford.

The meeting finished with a detailed tutorial on the use of HARP software, kindly provided by Malcolm. His PowerPoint slides are available.