Minutes of the HARP meeting of 9 March

AGENDA

1. Actions previous meeting
2. Targets: thin, thick, MiniBoone
3. Trolleys
4. HARP-2, HARP-3
5. Scheduling, shifts
6. Software
7. Summer student
8. Finances
9. Next meeting

1. Actions: Report on target materials (Rob) Summer student status (Paul) See points 2) and 7) of minutes.

2. Targets:
   • Richard reported that all thin targets and some thick targets have been ordered but had not arrived yet. Targets to arrive by week 12-16 March: Cu (thick and thin), Al, Sn, Pb (all thin). There is one Cu target and Cu "button" target at CERN, but this target does not have the required 0.1% impurity specifications (useful for test running but not to be used for actual data taking).
   • Tubes and holders are being made.
   • The skew (45 degree) target was discussed and it was decided that this would be another thin (3mm) Cu target but with low priority.
   • MiniBoone target: no news
   • K2K target: discussion with K2K representative resulted in deciding to have various thicknesses of Al (eg. 2%, 10%, 50%, 200%-66cm) to estimate systematic errors, rather than one K2K target as in their experiment. Holder for long target to be done by KEK and the other three by us.
     ***ACTION: Rob to discuss with Dydak if long Al target is not needed****
   • Long targets:
     • Ta quote (£2098 for 111.4 mm) - 7 weeks delivery
     • Be quote (£3316 for 407 mm)
     • MiniBoone to provide their Be target mountings for long target and other Be targets.

3. Trolley:
   • Base and rail bed assembled at CERN with blocks of wood for support
   • Three units with ball-bearings and adjustment screws ready - need to be sent to CERN.
   • The units at CERN were painted and some of the paint needs to be stripped to ensure that remaining pieces fit.
   • Rails for the trolley were delivered to Oxford and these were the wrong length. These need to be returned, re-ordered in the correct length and sent to CERN.
   • Feet of base also need to be assembled
   • Chariot for the base has been ordered to Arch Engineering (who let us down in the past!). No delivery date yet.
   • Upright support for targets ordered to local Oxford firm
   ****ACTION: Alan to follow up last two items****

4. HARP-2, HARP-3:
   • Interest for HARP-2 (with either deuterium or helium) is waning due to small physics case (only really relevant for atmospheric and not nu-factory). The main argument to run next year is to finish things that were left behind.
   • HARP-3 interest (high energy running), however, has increased, with NA-49 interested in including it as its programme. The idea would be to run some strategic thin targets at 40, 80, 120, 160 GeV and thick target (relevant for MINOS) at 120 GeV. Proposal by May?

5. Schedules at CERN:
   • Barbara, Malcolm at CERN now
   • March 12-15: Richard
   • March 24-April 20: Lara
   • March 24(?)-29(?): Giles
   • March 26-April 1(?): Barbara
   • March 27-April 2: Rob
   • March 30-April ?: Simon
   • April 2-6: Paul
   Shifts to be decided when shift-schedule more definite (approximately 11-12 shifts per person are estimated).

6. Software:
   • Beam chamber reconstruction: Lara still to commence but she will be at CERN
   • PS online profile for setting up beam to be done by Milan students
   • Malcolm was "volunteered" in his absence (lucky him!) to give a tutorial on HARP software to the uninitiated (ie. the rest), probably around April.

7. Summer Student:
   • Benjamin Portheault from Orsay has expressed interest on being a RAL summer student working on HARP and based at CERN. We will wait until we know if he is accepted as a CERN summer student. Ken Peach has agreed to fund him if the case is put in writing (typical salary about £1000 for 6 weeks).

8. Finances: Up to 23 February:
   • Total spent: £7.79 K
   • Requisitions: £2.26 K
   • Travel: £5.13 K
   Purchases at CERN to be signed by Mary Elizabeth for the HARP-UK team account.

9. Next meeting (at RAL): 23rd April unless Chris/Craig cannot make it. If not, then maybe 30th April.