DRAFT Minutes of the
FGST/GLAST International Finance Committee Meeting
Paris 20 March 2010
The International Finance Committee met at the Astroparticle Physics and Cosmology Laboratory (APC) in Paris.
In Attendance:
IFC Members:
Chair – David MacFarlane
France – IN2P3: Stavros Katsanevas
France – CEA: Pierre-Olivier Lagage
Italy – ASI: Elisabetta Cavazutti
Italy – INFN: Benedetto D’ettorre
Japan – Hiroshima: Yasushi Fukazawa
Others:
USA: Stanford: Peter Michelson
APC: P. Binetruy
Italy: Gino Tosti
NASA: Julie McEnery
SLAC: Rafael Alva, Rob Cameron, Richard Dubois, Nicola Omedei, Harvey Lynch
Stanford: Tom Langenstein
UCSC: Steve Ritz
Minutes 20 March 2010
Opening – D. MacFarlane
David opened the meeting, expressing satisfaction with the performance of the FGST LAT collaboration’s performance.
The minutes of the meeting of 31 October 2009 were approved without change.
Welcome – P. Binetruy
Prof. Binetruy welcomed the IFC to the APC.
He described the wide range of activities astrophysics in which the IN2P3 and APC are involved.
Mission Status – J. McEnery
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/exp/glast/doc/3_10/McEnery-mission_ifc.ppt
The laboratory is operating extremely smoothly. Almost all data taking has been in survey mode. There were 6 autonomous repoints, responding to bright gamma ray bursts that had been detected.
Data collection has been extremely efficient. Only one packet out of about 109 has been lost since last October.
The instrument has been very productive. Since July 2008 the gamma ray burst monitor (GBM) has detected about 450 bursts. The first LAT catalog was released in January 2010.
The Guest Investigator program is active, and 192 proposals have been received.
Recent Highlights and Status – P. Michelson
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/exp/glast/doc/3_10/Fermi%20IFC%20Meeting%20(03_10)%20Michelson1.ppt
Page 2 of the presentation shows the demographics of the collaboration, broken down by membership category and country.
The collaboration is robust, in spite of the fact that the gamma ray data have done public. Nearly 80 papers have been published so far, and the source catalog has about 1450 entries, based on one year of observation.
See pp. 34 – 35 for summary of results. A number of new GeV sources have been found. The galactic and isotropic diffuse spectrum has been measured to 100 GeV. The e+ e- spectrum has been measured to 1 TeV.
LAT Analysis Coordinator – N. Omodei / S. Digel
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/exp/glast/doc/3_10/AC_Report_IFC_Mar_2010_v2.pdf
There are 8 working groups, and they are very active, and collaboration members are on the average involved in about 2 different groups. The largest group is for calibration and analysis.
Page 6 has a table of the number of papers published or accepted, broken down by journal; the total number of papers is 67. Three different catalogs based on the first year of data have been prepared: Gamma-ray, AGN, and Pulsars. A very exciting result was published on the spectrum of cosmic ray electrons having an energy of at least 20 GeV.
ISOC Status – R. Cameron
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/exp/glast/doc/3_10/Cameron-ISOC-IFC2010mar20.pdf
Up-time for the instrument has been excellent (99.1% for physics), and data taking was able to continue during the power outage.
Performance of the LAT tracker has been excellent, with only a few (0.04%) strip failures since launch.
The ISOC itself is functioning very well.
Some possible upgrades are discussed on p. 27.
Collaboration Computing – R. Dubois
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/exp/glast/doc/3_10/Dubois-IFC201003-SAS-v00.ppt
Computing has gone well with processing done at SLAC, Saclay, and Lyon. Pages 3 to 7 summarize the resources presently available, and p. 8 shows predictions for 2010. Page 12 shows predicted needs for 2011.
The acquisition of Sun by Oracle has caused some disruption of disk purchases because of higher prices. It is hoped to rectify this.
Action Items from Previous Meeting – P. Michelson
1. The of valuation of in-kind computing contributions toward the OCF: Simulation and high level computation can be done at designated centers, such as Lyon and CNAF. We need to think in terms of what is in the presently planned pipeline as well as possible increases in capacity needed. Increased prices of disk storage may affect the computing model and how needs are met. The demands of LHC and the effect on resources also need to be taken into account. The IFC agreed with the principles of the data pipeline and storage as being part of the core functions. If additional needs arise in the future, the Collaboration will present options to the IFC, including in-kind contributions. The IFC encourages acknowledgment of computing contributions in future publications.
2. Budget for CY 2011: See next item.
Budget Status – P. Michelson
Page 2 of the presentation shows the close-out of the CY 2009 budget. There is a carry-over of about $31 k, which is applied to CY 2010. The CY 2010 budget is shown on p. 3, using the 2009 carry-in.
The IFC took note of the proposed CY 2011 budget that is shown on p. 6.
Computing Resources and Scientific Computing at SLAC – David MacFarlane
The Lab’s financial structure is changing, and in particular there is an extra $9 M load that has been added to our HEP budget. However, the FGST will be protected. We are programmed to handle 2010 and 2011.
The Photon Science program is expected to have large increases in disk space needs.
Round Table – All
Julie: NASA has received everything is had requested for 2010. We have no specific information on 2011.
Benedetto: We are in a very hard time, because the structure of the institute is changing. We hope to be able to maintain the level of participation of people from Italy. We certainly want to make good use of the large investment that been made.
Gino (on behalf of Elisabetta): FGST is funded through 2013, and the Italian participation in the experiment will remain high. There is a new Chief Scientist in ASI.
Pierre: CEA is very happy to take part in FGST, and the experiment is among the highest priorities, even if there are some budget decreases.
Stavros: IN2P3 is pleased that the collaboration has held together after the data went public. We have survived with constant budget cuts, but we may have difficulties with the number of people.
Yasushi: The new fiscal year begins next month, and it looks good.
Kathy: Sends her regrets for not being able to participate in person. DOE much appreciates the science of FGST and we expect to remain supportive of the experiment. The Office of Science has a plan to double the budget, but basic science is not expected to grow that rapidly. The FY 2011 budget request only had a 2% increase, and FY 2012 may even have a decrease due to the overall deficit.
Next Meeting – All
The next meeting is planned to be held at SLAC on 4 September 2010 in conjunction with the FGST collaboration meeting. A possible backup date of 30 August was offered. A final date will be announced in a subsequent e-mail.
Later: The final date was defined to be 31 August 2010.