DRAFT Minutes of the
FGST International Finance Committee Meeting
SLAC 4 – 5 November 2011
In Attendance:
IFC Members:
Chair – David MacFarlane
France – CEA: Pierre-Olivier Lagage
France – IN2P3 Stavros Katsanevas
Japan – Hiroshima: Yasushi Fukazawa
USA – DOE Kathy Turner
Others:
USA: Stanford: Peter Michelson, Tom Langenstein
NASA: Julie McEnery
SLAC: Rob Cameron, Richard Dubois, Linda Price, Harvey Lynch
FGST: N. Omodei, L. Rochester, E. Charles, G. Tosti
UCSC: Steve Ritz
Minutes 4 – 5 November 2011
Introduction – David MacFarlane
FGST is a very important part of the SLAC science program. Many of the science highlights that have been sent to DOE (William Brinkman) have been of FGST results.
The Collaboration is making preparations for the NASA Senior review for extension of the mission. Several of the presentations to the IFC will describe science opportunities.
David introduced David Muller, who will succeed the retiring IFC Secretary, Harvey Lynch.
LAT Status and Overview – P. Michelson
The second FGST LAT catalog of 1873 gamma ray sources has been completed. The collaboration membership is stable; see pp. 4 and 5 of presentation. The science working groups are active and productive, and to date, the collaboration has published 159 papers. Many of these papers have been frequently cited elsewhere; see p. 9.
We would like to thank Gino Tosti for his year at SLAC as Science Coordinator. The IFC expressed their thanks to Gino as well.
Mission Status – J. McEnery
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/exp/glast/doc/11_11/mission_ifc_nov2011[1].pdf
The observatory is working very smoothly. We are carefully watching the reaction wheel situation. Out measures to mitigate the risk appear to be the correct approach.
The NASA Level 1 review review of 19 May 2011 was successful.
During 2011 operations, target-of-opportunity observations have increased to about 6% of observation time. This is a good sign of synergy between different means of observation. See p. 3 of the presentation.
Preparations are being made for the NASA Senior Review; see p. 13 et seq. The presentations are scheduled for 28 February to 1 March 2012.
The FGST bibliography web page will soon be available for public use. A large number of papers have been published, and they have high citation. See p. 18 et seq.
Science case for extended LAT Operation – P. Michelson
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/exp/glast/doc/11_11/Fermi+LAT-+Case+for+Extended+Operations+draft2.pdf
Peter described the highlights the discoveries of the LAT during the past 3 years, and subsequent talks will describe in some detail the physics opportunities of an extended FGST mission. In summary, in the next 5 years, with LAT we can expect to at least the following:
· Discover new gamma-ray source classes by pursuing identification of 2FGL unidentified sources, and better characterize cosmic evolution of poorly-sampled source classes
· Complete the accounting of contributions to high-energy isotropic gamma-ray background; make first measurements of spectrum above 100 GeV
· More than double number of millisecond pulsar discoveries (in the field), thus enhancing capabilities of radio pulsar timing arrays (e.g. NANOGrav) for gravitational radiation detection
· Continue to provide all-sky transient alert capability, crucial for multiwavelength studies of transients ranging from extragalactic high-energy GRBs (~1 per 2 months) to rare galactic transients such as novae (V407 Cygni) and flaring SNRs (Crab)
· At the lowest and highest energies all the above will be significantly enhanced by implementation of Pass 8 analysis
Active Galaxies – G. Tosti
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/exp/glast/doc/11_11/ifc_agn_tosti_v2.pdf
Gino gave a complex overview of AGNs and how they relate to FGST’s work in the context of other observations. See his presentation for details.
Steve Ritz – Dark Matter
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/exp/glast/doc/11_11/IFC-Ritz-DMNP-finalpost.pdf
Steve discussed the extended mission for FGST in the context of dark matter and new physics. FGST’s assets are large solid angle coverage, very large range of gamma ray energy measurement, and much higher sensitivity than previous observatories.
Some highlights of FGST findings are shown on p. 3 of the presentation.
Gamma Ray Bursts –N. Omodei
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/exp/glast/doc/11_11/111104_IFC_GRB.pdf
Gamma ray bursts (GRB) are the most distant objects that the FGST observes. About 700 have been observed by the GBM and about 39 by the LAT in 3 years. Observation of the gamma ray energy spectrum and time behavior of the intensity provides information on the GRBs.
A projection of the number of GRBs expected to be observed in the extended operation is shown on p. 14.
Page 24 of the presentation gives a summary of the goals of the studies of gamma ray bursts:
· Increase the population of GRB by a factor of 3
· Extension to low energy: filling the gap between the LAT and the GBM energy bands
· Improve the analysis at high energy
Pass-8 – L. Rochester
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/exp/glast/doc/11_11/Pass_8_IFC_Nov_2011_v3.4.pdf
The analysis of the gamma ray data has evolved over time, and numerous improvements have been made. A major step will be to reanalyze all the data with Pass-8 software. One major improvement will be to extend the measurement of gamma ray energies to even higher values, which will be important for some studies that are in progress. New tracking and cluster algorithms will offer substantial improvements.
The goal is full public release of Pass-8 by summer 2013.
Collaboration Computing – R. Dubois
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/exp/glast/doc/11_11/IFC201111-SAS-v00.pdf
We have a model for resource requirements for 2012, taking into account the need for Pass-8 reprocessing and replacement of aging servers. See p. 5 of the presentation. We no longer look to Sun/Oracle for disk drives, and a strategy has been developed for alternative vendors.
Summary:
• Disk issues are hopefully behind us
• Need $626k for CY12 hardware
– Pass7 and Pass8
– Replacing old hardware
• Looking ahead to need for peak cycles:
– Data reprocessing at Lyon
– Extend the pipeline to the GRID
• Looking ahead to maintenance mode
– Researching virtualization
ISOC Status – R. Cameron
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/exp/glast/doc/11_11/Cameron-ISOC-IFC2011nov05.pdf
Operations data taking have proceeded very smoothly. Only a tiny fraction (0.05%) of LAT Si tracker strips have failed in service.
Summary
· LAT is still performing very well overall
· Improved Flight Operations tools to support file management for coming FSW updates
· Level 1 Processing accomplished smooth transition from Pass 6 to Pass 7 processing
– Level 1 DQM can now handle Solar activity
– Improvements in enlisting DQM shift scientists
· Stability of LAT operations results in recommended change to ISOC operations mix in IFC budget
– Change 1 FTE to Level 1 processing support
Budget – P. Michelson
The IFC took note of the expenses for 2011 and the proposed budget for 2012, of $1,177,700.
We are in the fortunate situation of having a budget overrun for 2011 because of publication costs; so many papers have been published. The overrun has been absorbed by the NASA contract.
The collaboration membership has been quite stable. This translates into an effective OCF share cost of $5324 for 2012.
Round Table – All
Pierre: We do not yet have a budget for 2012, but we do not expect it to be higher than 2011. We expect to continue support of FGST.
Yasushi: The budget has not been set because of the earthquake. We expect some reduction for the coming year
Julie: (for NASA) We expect full support for FGST during the prime phase of the experiment, and we also expect support for the extended phase. The budget continuing resolution (CR) muddies waters.
Stavros: IN2P3 budget is not yet clear, but we expect a cut of about 10%. However, we expect stable support for FGST. The FGST is an admirable collaboration, and people are happy to work within it. We congratulate the entire collaboration.
Kathy: Jim Siegrist is the new head of the DOE Office of High Energy Physics. The funding is presently tied up in the Continuing Resolution, but it is not expected to increase. This is a time of change. For example, the TeVatron has been shut down. We are trying to increase funding for construction projects, which in turn puts pressure on the Cosmic Frontier. Long term: We shall have a panel review of options. FGST will be reviewed for operations and science goals. Dark Matter: Various different groups talk about dark matter efforts. There will be a workshop in the spring of 2012 on the subject. FGST has done a great job on the physics and adapting to the evolving science.
David: Have spoken with Jim Siegrist. The P5 report was a good report, and we don’t want to revisit that now. Perhaps in 2 or 3 years a new subpanel process would make sense. We need to understand the stewardship of accelerator programs and who supports generic R&D. The Intensity Frontier is amorphous, and the picture needs to be clarified by mid 2012. Overall, SLAC is healthy. A search for a new Lab director is under way. LCLS is working very well, and a LCLS-II proposal is under way. LSST is moving forward after a very favorable review. The overall SLAC staff has increased to about 1700, but the HEP program is under pressure. We have had been hit by first a 7% and then an additional 5% hit in budget. However, we shall protect FGST. Presently, FGST is about 50% of the non-accelerator program, but we expect that to taper down by about 10% as needs change.
Minutes of previous meeting – All
The minutes of the May 2011 meeting were approved without change.
Next Meeting – All
The next meeting will be held by video conference in mid-May 2012, consistent with the agreed format of alternating phone meetings in the spring of each year with a fall face-to-face meeting to approve the next year’s budget. The fall 2012 meeting will be held on October 28th in conjunction with the Fermi Symposium in Monterey.