Minutes of UK CMS Meeting; 2 November 1995, RAL ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Present: R Brown (RAL), W Cameron (ICSTM), D Cockerill (RAL), W Haynes (RAL), G Heath (Bristol), B Kennedy (RAL), D Miller (ICSTM), T Virdee (ICSTM) Apologies for absence: P Hobson (Brunel), D Imrie (Brunel), S Watts (Brunel) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Minutes: B W Kennedy / RAL ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1) Possible CMS involvement by the University of the West of England, Bristol. GH has been in contact with Richard McClatchey of UWE Computing department. RMcC was formerly a HEP physicist working in Aleph, but is now a lecturer in computing. He and several UWE colleagues are active in the RD38 collaboration researching slow controls systems for future experiments. They wish to find a new project in HEP, and have identified the CMS regional centre crystal database as an area suited to their expertise. RMcC came to the ECAL meeting also held on 2/11/95, and more details can be found in the minutes of that meeting. Several points arose in discussion; WH and TV pointed out that the current state of the CMS daq, slow controls, and triggering software is far from satisfactory, and that the expertise available at UWE could be useful to CMS. WH felt that UWE might take on a wider role in the daq/trigger/SC system, rather than being limited solely to the crystal database. RMB warned against expanding the remit of the UK groups, as the selection panel would not accept such a development; CERN has funds available for Associateships to solve pressing problems, and the UK groups could not take on the task of sorting out the slow controls. It was agreed that any involvement of UWE in CMS should be restricted to the crystal database, at least in the short to medium term. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2) Replies to PPESP, to their questions arising from the Oct 2 meeting. RMB showed a draft copy of the PPESP minutes; the final version will be released when they have been approved by David Miller. The draft minutes say that the panel noted John Fry's second (positive) letter, and also took note of the MS bid for extra manpower, though no decision had been made. The panel supported the general strategy of the group, and the proposed UK regional centre for the ECAL. The minutes also contained versions of David Miller's questions: i) More detail requested on the division of work between regional centre and industry for the tracker readout system. - Geoff Hall has replied in detail; RMB distributed copies of his reply, which will form part of the submission to the selection panel. ii) The proposed RAL technology manpower profile is not flat; the panel regard the current version as "unlikely to be possible". - The ECAL plan calls for a mean of 8sy/y with a peak of 10 in 1998-99; the tracker requires a mean of 5 with a peak of 6, also in 1998-99. There was much discussion of this point, with general agreement that the true manpower needs could not possibly be constant from year to year in a project of this type. The profile could be made flat by buying in extra manpower as needed. It is dangerous to plan to use requisition money for this. RMB will investigate whether the ratio of requisition money to manpower can be varied from year to year such that the time integrals of each remain constant. There is little room for manoeuvre with the common fund contributions, as they will be largely in kind rather than in cash. Whatever the means, the manpower bump must be spread out if possible. If this cannot be done, it will be necessary to reduce our commitments to CMS. DJAC will discuss possibilities for the ECAL with John Connolly and Peter Sharp. For the tracker, WH will confer with Geoff Hall. The planning must not depend on the politically delicate issue of slippage of the LHC schedule. iii) What is the effect on the UK groups of the 10% descoping of CMS ? TV clarified the jargon by defining the words "descoping" and "staging". "Staging" is a means of coping with reduced funding. "Descoping" is a scheme for building the detector with constant funding in the face of rising costs. The descoping issue which might affect the UK effort is the change in crystal size. Larger crystals would need fewer electronics channels, but would have no impact on the ECAL design workload. DJAC will draft a reply as soon as possible. iv) RMB raised the question of the headcount of the UK institutes. He has received a full reply only from WC. The other groups must reply to RMB soon, as a coherent UK headcount must go to George Kalmus by 27 November. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3) The use of CMS requisition money to increase the manpower quota. This has already been addressed by the tracker group. The ECAL group must do likewise. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4) Attendance at the Dec 4th PPESP on behalf of CMS. The panel would like a CMS representative to be present. RMB will find out whether this means exactly one person, or at least one. If 1, RMB will attend. If >=1, he will invite a tracker expert as well. TV pointed out that this is the third successive meeting of the PPESP to coincide with a CMS collaboration week, causing great inconvenience. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5) Payments to CMS common fund in 95/6, 96/7, and 97/8. RMB lamented the constant rule changes which beset discussions of the common fund. Again, TV supplied working definitions of jargon currently used at CERN: The "Common Fund" refers only to cash contributions. The "Common Project" encompasses contributions in kind as well. It appears that the necessary contributions for CERN financial years 1995 and 1996 are covered, and no UK contribution will be needed. There is a substantial commitment in 1997 for the magnet yoke, but some national funding agencies (PPARC, Germany...) are opposed to this. The Interim Memorandum of Understanding will include money for the magnet design and prototyping; a relatively small payment (few*100kSF) is foreseen, but the exact figure is not known. RMB and TV agreed that there will probably be an opportunity to contribute approximately 300kSF. At present the UK groups are receiving more money than they are spending. RMB said that this may be a source of embarrassment; Geoff Hall's R&D spending for the tracker does not appear in the CMS money matrix, and is therefore effectively invisible to CMS. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6) Contributions to the 'Particle Physics Experiments 1995' document CMS has been asked to provide a description of work in 1995 for this document. DJAC will coordinate contributions from anyone he considers suitable. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 7) Any other business. WC remarked that DJAC's CMS mailing list is out of date, at least with respect to ICSTM. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 8) Date of next meeting. To be decided later.