I have decided to run for STAR spokesperson in February. Although I might not have time to visit your institute in person, I would like to present to you my motivation for getting into the race at this late stage and my plans for STAR regarding certain issues that I think need serious attention for the future.
I have been in STAR from its inception. I was one of the contributors to the original STAR proposal in 1991, and I have held many senior positions in STAR over the years. Since 1992 I have been the project leader for the Silicon Vertex Tracker, I was a physics working group convenor for almost five years (from 2002 until last year) and I was briefly the STAR deputy spokesperson in 2001/2002. My present appointment as the chair of the RHIC Users Executive Committee has helped me to establish a good rapport with BNL management and the DoE and NSF funding agents. I have many contacts at the APS, the Office of Management & Budgets (OMB), the Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP), and the DoE Office of Science.
My main motivation to run for spokesperson is based on the fact that I believe that STAR, and in general the RHIC program, needs senior leaders with management experience at this point in order to establish the basis for a program that could last until 2020 or beyond. RHIC is in somewhat of a crisis, which slowly built up over the past few years, and which is now enhanced through the imminent turn-on of the LHC, the stiff competition by other Nuclear Science fields in the NSAC Long Range Plan (the JLab upgrade, the FRIB accelerator and the DUSEL program were prioritized higher than the mid-term RHIC plan), and even within BNL the expansion of NSLS (NSLS-II) and the new Center for Nanomaterials (CFN). In order to not only stay competitive but provide a solid vision for the extension of our heavy ion and spin programs towards the anticipated construction of eRHIC, we need to initiate a much more focused discussion within the collaboration, motivate our young professors and research scientists to take on responsibilities in this discussion, and promote them into future leaders in the field. In addition, we need to initiate a dialogue with the eRHIC community and PHENIX on ideas for a joint ep/eA/AA program during the eRHIC era. It is my firm belief that a dedicated heavy ion program, which is only possible at RHIC, is sufficiently interesting to support a large scale effort even beyond 2020, likely based on a new common (STAR/PHENIX) heavy ion detector. Even if this last part of the plan cannot be realized, we need to establish a program that goes well beyond the low energy scan and the presently envisioned upgrade program to take advantage of the significantly higher luminosities which will allow access to important rare processes. This will require the vision and active involvement of our bright young physicists in STAR.
We are well prepared for the energy scan. We have a good physics plan and a strong detector upgrade program. In particular the ToF is well underway and I share the collaboration’s excitement about the low energy runs. Therefore, I think the immediate future is well covered in STAR but we need to think beyond this short term milestone.
In the UEC, I have recently initiated the drafting of flyers for OMB/OSTP to show that RHIC has a viable program during the LHC running, which is based on five key components:
This means that besides flexibility in the machine components (colliding species, luminosity, energy scan) we also are at collision energies where several unique features of the QCD phase diagram (critical point, sQGP) can be studied in detail. Most of these features are likely not accessible at the LHC. Plus, the spin program adds a distinct component to our program, which can only be superseded by a new electron-ion collider.
It is important to promote this program at all levels of the funding chain (collaboration, BNL, NSAC, DoE/NSF, OMB/OSTP, appropriation committees), and it is equally important to demonstrate within the community STAR’s leadership in the relevant physics measurements. Both require a strong, experienced leader who is willing to make decisions for the greater good of the collaboration. In this context part of my decision to run for spokesperson is based on the outside perception that STAR, for the second time in a row, seemed not to be able to open this process to a larger group of candidates. I think this is widely viewed as a certain level of disinterest by a large part of the collaboration in becoming involved in the day to day operation of the experiment. It is also viewed as an indicator that the migration of our scientists from RHIC to LHC might have begun. I view my candidacy as a collegial approach to broaden the field of candidates and to show that more ‘weathered’ STAR members are still very engaged and interested in taking on major responsibilities. My recent involvement in the R2D proposal and preparations for ALICE has taught me how unique the RHIC program is, and how we can build a strong and lasting future for relativistic heavy ion and spin physics at BNL. I am confident that I can be a good spokesperson, and I am confident that my candidacy will be positively viewed outside the collaboration, and I hope also inside the collaboration. Many have stated that the recent PHENIX election was a positive example for the proper process, and I hope with my candidacy we can achieve a similar positive vibe and an actual interest in our election, inside and outside of the collaboration. This would be beneficial for the whole RHIC community.
In the following pages I will layout a detailed physics and upgrade plan. Then I will address certain administrative issues that need to be defined in order for a new management to be effective.
I think STAR needs a very detailed vision for the future that goes beyond the low energy runs scheduled in 2009-2011. We need to make sure that this dedicated heavy ion facility stays competitive with the LHC heavy ion program until at least 2020 or the inception of eRHIC at BNL. I personally support a heavy ion program during the eRHIC era and will fight for it, and I think STAR should be the leading force behind such a long term future plan. Our facility will always be the only dedicated relativistic heavy ion machine in the world and it should be supported by all present STAR institutions throughout the LHC era. I do not agree with an often heard prognosis that the RHIC heavy ion program will be completed by 2013. I believe that 2013 has the ability to be a new beginning for RHIC. Upcoming findings related to medium properties (e.g. quantitative determination of state variables such as viscosity, energy loss transport coefficients) and hadronization properties (e.g. hadro-chemistry in recombination and fragmentation processes) could make us the premier QCD laboratory to study matter evolution in the early universe, which affects not only nuclear and high energy physics but also cosmology and fundamental theory, such as string theory and lattice QCD.
Based on todays knowledge I propose a three phase plan until 2020.
Phase 1 (2008-2012)
At the heart of phase 1 lies the energy scan for heavy ion collisions, the extended search for initial conditions based on dA collisions, and the extension of the measurement of the gluon contribution to the proton spin in the polarized pp collisions. The results from the dA measurements might be in direct competition with early results from the LHC on low-x physics, but the energy scan and the spin program are unique. STAR is well prepared for phase 1. The ToF upgrade is coming along and will be completed prior to the energy scan. The forward detector upgrade for this part of the spin and dA program has already been completed. More importantly, the collaboration is excited about this phase and needs little encouragement. During the last weeks I have often heard that ‘we will do these low energy measurements and then we’ll move on to the LHC’. Clearly this should not be the strategy and we need to change the perception that this will be the last big measurement at RHIC. Part of my strategy will be to re-invigorate the upgrades program by suggesting additional detector upgrades, in particular in the calorimeter sector, in the next few years. An expanded group of active scientists interested in the future will also re-visit the question of a new common detector for STAR and PHENIX for phase 3 and/or the eRHIC era. The energy scan, the upgrades and the spin program should also enable us to expand the collaboration by attracting new groups at a time where it might be unavoidable that some groups will migrate to the LHC. I will actively pursue the recruitment of new scientists into STAR.
In terms of significant physics output from phase 1, I expect that flow and fluctuation measurements will hopefully determine unambiguously the existence of a critical point in the QCD phase diagram. Many particle identified measurements, both for stable particles and resonances, will benefit from the resolution and 2p coverage of the ToF. As an example, I expect that we will resolve the issue of a phase transition behavior at lower energies which is presently based on the SPS K/p measurements. Complementing the largely experimental nature of the scan, a strong focus must be placed on the theory side. The larger goal of our experimental collaboration is to make crisp, unambiguous scientific statements. In order for our field to leave a permanent mark in this regard, it is clear that a more systematic theoretical effort must be mounted. As spokesperson, I will push the theory community to extract meaningful, numerical quantities, with error bars, from our data. I will further argue to the funding agencies to increase support for the theoretical community, because the lack of an upgraded theory effort might well be the greatest threat to our field’s overall scientific legacy.
Regarding the spin program I expect a final conclusive measurement on the gluon contribution to the proton spin based on the longitudinal polarized proton program in different x-regions accessible through the higher energy proton run (500 GeV). The transverse polarized protons should also yield first results on transversity, Sivers, and Collins functions. As of yet, transversity remains the only unmeasured spin structure function. The previous statements regarding the dire need for solid theory support apply here as well, and again an effort needs to be made by all experimental groups to link their work closely to theoretical approaches to constrain the wide range of models presently available. During this phase I also intend to convene a dedicated group of spin advisors to link the spin physics of all three phases of this plan to the laboratory’s eRHIC project.
Phase 2 (2012-2016)
One issue that might be pushed into phase 2, simply because STAR and the DoE did not come to terms with our upgrade plans on an appropriate time scale, is the physics that a new vertex detector can bring us. I was leading the effort for the first generation vertex detector in STAR, which was built to enhance the physics in the strangeness sector. The SVT was an upgrade which was completed in year-2. The TPC was very successful early on in strangeness measurements, and based on the lack of identifiable physics and the rather complex issues of calibration and alignment, it was exceedingly difficult for us to establish the SVT as a viable physics detector after the TPC had already begun to successfully take data. Even a perfectly performing SVT would provide only incremental increases in efficiency to the strangeness program. Given this, people put their effort into extracting ready physics from the TPC, rather than into directions which would have made the SVT an integral part of STAR’s tracking. It is hard to characterize as unreasonable the cost-to-benefit reasoning behind the decision to focus on TPC-only analyses given the rather unexpected capabilities of the TPC. Only recently, with the help of a dedicated effort by the BNL software group and the implementation of a new integrated tracking algorithm, were we able to get the SVT established. We are still trying to extract exciting physics, now in the charm sector.
I have learned a lot of useful lessons in this very successful construction project, but in some sense failed physics project, which I intend to apply in my support for the 2nd generation HFT/IST/SSD vertexing detectors. With an order of magnitude superior resolution compared to the SVT the detector should be well suited for charm and bottom reconstruction and it is at the heart of our present mid term upgrades. Together with the enhanced particle identification capabilities of the ToF we can expect a program which goes beyond the basic D-meson questions. In particular, if charmed baryons and B-meson become available. Besides addressing heavy quark energy loss and flow, we will also be able to study more speculative hadronization ideas, such as the binding of heavy quarks into rare charm-strange baryons and mesons in an oversaturated strange phase
In addition the enhanced particle identification capabilities of TOF and HFT, together with the enhanced data mining capabilities of DAQ-1000 and better trigger algorithms should enable us to make definitive measurements of the hadronization process and the collectivity of the medium over a large momentum range, at least up to 10 GeV/c.
With these measurements of identified single, two-particle and many-particle spectra we will be able to determine the equation of state and state variables, such as temperature, pressure, and volume, as well as medium properties such as speed of sound, viscosity, diffusion coefficients, energy loss, transport coefficients in a less ambiguous fashion. I personally think that this could well become the ‘golden era’ of RHIC because the determination of the medium properties and the hadronization mechanism out of this medium will allow us to distinguish quantitatively the properties of the QCD medium and the QCD vacuum. Hadro-chemistry in the medium will be a key component of these studies, and resonances in the hard component might even give us access to the question of chiral symmetry restoration. In addition the heavy quark spectra, all the way up to the Y states, will give us access to the initial temperature and the evolution of the system as a function of time. More exotic topics, such as CP violation in the strong sector as well as the formation of exotic partonic states (pentaquarks, glueballs, bound states above Tc), will be also addressed with the superior PID capabilities.
In the spin sector I believe that phase 2 needs to address the question of the angular momentum component to the proton spin. Transversity measurements will come into their own in this time, and the forward upgrade with the FGT will be completed and will enable us to do W physics. The intrinsic handedness of the W-boson allows the separate measurement of quark and anti-quark polarization, which will hopefully lead to the first isolated anti-quark polarization measurement ever. In addition accurate single beam helicity measurements might be enabled through increased luminosity and the upgrade detectors. These measurements violate parity and might give access to physics beyond the standard model, such as evidence for a possible quark substructure and for supersymmetric particles.
Phase 3 (2016-2020)
I believe that this phase will be governed by rare process physics in the heavy ion sector. We need to arrive at a running mode where we run heavy ions in the same fashion than we run polarized protons right now, i.e. certain rare heavy ion measurements will only be achievable when several years of running are chained together. This might be particularly valuable for the rare heavy quark program, and a correlated jet program at very high momentum. In order to have a more detailed understanding of our plans for this phase, I plan to convene a committee of young active STAR members and a series of interested theorists.
Overall this phase is likely dominated by a shift towards an increase in spin and pA measurements in preparation for eRHIC. Certainly the three main parts of our existing spin program (transverse spin, gluon polarization, anti-quark polarization) will likely be continued in the eRHIC program, but there are also new exciting measurements we need to think about such as deep virtual Compton scattering to measure generalized parton distribution functions, measuring the spin structure of the virtual photon, and measuring spin structure differences between protons and neutrons. The physics case for an eA program at eRHIC was recently summarized in a very comprehensive white paper by the EIC collaboration, and one of our own, Thomas Ullrich, is a driving force in this effort, so I would certainly rely on him in advising us on the preparatory steps to take towards an eA program.
At the same time we need to define an AA program for the eRHIC era, based on AA physics that has not been achieved yet. I was one of the main proponents of a new detector (R2D) for this phase of RHIC, and I still think that our community needs to come together behind a strong physics program to push for a new joint (PHENIX/STAR) device that would allow us to do AA physics at RHIC even in the eRHIC era. The original R2D detector concept was based on hermeticity, greater momentum PID capabilities (out to 20 GeV/c) and superior electro-magnetic and hadronic calorimetry. I am convinced that with the presently available detectors a direct photon program, a complete heavy meson program and a complete jet fragmentation program in heavy ion collisions will always be limited. A new detector could enable our community to achieve these topics without the luminosity and runtime limitations of the LHC and without the distributed detector capabilities at the LHC. There is an interesting program for us even beyond 2020 and we need to study and explore its possibilities.
A spokesperson has to be present at BNL and I will commit to spend at least ¾ of my time at BNL. I will relocate to Long Island for my spokesperson tenure, and I am negotiating the proper teaching relief agreement with my university.
A spokesperson needs to have a good rapport with STAR operations and I commit to work with Bill Christie and his crew in the most collegial manner. I know many members of the STAR operations crew from my previous projects at BNL, and I appreciate their devotion and competence. Bill Christie has done a tremendous job after Ralph Brown’s departure, but more resources have to be found in order to support the operations group, in particular regarding detector maintenance and operation.
A spokesperson needs to work actively with the STAR Council and he/she needs to enable the participation of the council in key decisions. Our council has not been given the chance to more actively contribute to the daily operations and the problems of the collaboration. Not only do we need to work together on these issues, but the spokesperson needs to utilize the advisory board as the necessary middle layer. I will review the functions of the advisory board and pledge to work with them in a more pro-active way, and I will also try to complement them by a group of active young scientists directly from the physics working groups.
A spokesperson needs to assure the quality of the collaboration’s scientific output. It is my opinion that our output although prolific, lacks a certain scientific weight. We write too many small papers that carry too little physics impact. I will try to consolidate analyses, and I will make the PWGC and GPC committees more pro-active. Too many papers seem rubber stamped and scientific conflicts are not resolved but rather avoided. I plan to have better and more binding guidance by the PWGC on a proposed paper’s target journal. I will insist on a STAR note containing all analysis details prior to submission of a paper to the GPC. I will impose strict timelines on each step of the submission process, which can only be delayed by the STAR management in the case of scientific conflicts. I will add a layer of experienced experts for speedy conflict resolution and I will personally be pro-active in a.) resolving conflicts and b.) assuring quality control. I will also attempt to enforce a code of conduct that people should follow in a scientific discourse. There is too little scientific discussion at our meetings. Too often we get distracted with collaboration business at these meetings. I will change the modes for collaboration and analysis meetings in order to put more emphasis on science again. I am very optimistic that many of the present scientific issues in our collaboration can be resolved through a more pro-active and decisive leadership.
A spokesperson needs to know how to delegate and I plan to have a strong and active administration including the younger generation of active scientists. For example the following is a listing of recently named tenure-track assistant professors at U.S. institutions in our collaboration (Barannikova, Caines, Calderon, Fatemi, Markert, Mioduszewski, Surrow, Xie). I will call on these individuals, plus the laboratory research scientists of the same generation, to form a layer of scientists that will be involved in the decision making process. I personally think that our physics working group convenors are one of the strongest committees in STAR and I will expand their responsibilities. I will institute additional quality control measures for physics papers and I will enhance the guidance that young primary authors will get for publishing their papers. I will fight for each member of this collaboration to be able to present their work to the larger community, at national and international conferences. Finally, I will rely on a strong physics analysis coordinator and three deputy spokespersons to pull our administration together. Having three deputies permanently will require a change in the by-laws, but it is my opinion that the multitude of tasks for the management requires such a change. The deputies will have specific tasks relating to a.) bridge the gap between the spin and heavy ion program, b.) unify regional interests, c.) coordinate service work and detector maintenance.
A spokesperson needs to give special emphasis to the future. I will pledge to revamp our upgrade program in order to get more of the collaboration involved, and I pledge to hold the collaboration to commitments regarding service work and detector maintenance. I plan to find a backup for every ‘indispensable’ person in the collaboration (e.g. TPC or DAQ operators).
A spokesperson needs to be able to represent its collaboration and its field in the community and in the greater public. I think we are the superior collaboration at RHIC and I will pledge to represent us forcefully towards PHENIX, BNL management, NSAC, the DoE, NSF, and other government offices.
A spokesperson needs to know how to be decisive when necessary and I pledge to tackle certain key issues, besides the aforementioned quality assurance and scientific discussion rules, which I will briefly list in the following section.
One priority in my plans for the collaboration is to bring factions within the collaboration together. My administration will reflect an attempt to integrate the foreign institutions more, and to have a common basis and representation for the heavy ion and spin scientists in STAR. In addition, for too long STAR has been hampered by a fractionalization within the U.S. heavy ion institutions. I think this led to a certain dominance of PHENIX in the field, which does not necessarily have to be the case. I think STAR is the better detector, and now we have the chance to step up and also be the better collaboration. A healthy, active and successful STAR collaboration is absolutely crucial for the survival of relativistic heavy ion physics in the national laboratories and universities in the U.S.
We will draft more detailed Memoranda of Understanding with all institutions which include commitments to shift scheduling, service work and detector maintenance as well as detector operations. We will work on a system that will avoid single point failures such as the TPC without Blair Stringfellow or the DAQ without Jeff Landgraf, by involving the Council early on in the managerial operations process of all hardware and software components in STAR. We will create a more active and committed collaboration which can only be achieved through an active and involved council. The shift sign-up needs to be restructured in order to avoid problems such as the ones occurring during this holiday season. My administration will be very pro-active in getting this done within the first year of our term.
Furthermore the present structure of the physics working groups is not optimal to achieve quality physics output. Generally, I think the PWG topics were well chosen and are still largely appropriate, but we might consider, in deliberations with the convenors, some tweaking. Possibly strangeness and heavy flavor could be merged, flow could have its own group so could resonances, the ebye vs estruct issue has to be revisited, the spin program might need more than one group, and we need to have a hard look at the smaller PWGs and their viability in the future. But the biggest problem we are facing is the distribution of students and topics across the groups. In particular the spectra group is overcrowded with students that belong in other groups. I believe that in such an environment the scientific quality cannot be assured because the group is too big, not all issues can be discussed sufficiently in meetings and phone conferences, and the convenors are simply overwhelmed. I will impose a minimum requirement that convenors from the actual expert group (e.g. heavy flavor convenors for a charm analysis) will sign off on the work before it goes to a GPC. I will also require that primary authors planning to write a paper or give a presentation have to attend the expert group’s phone conference regularly to keep both groups informed. Both groups will have to sign off on conference abstracts and will help decide on speakers in case of a conflict. In general, we will find ways in accordance with the convenors to convince young scientists that it is in their best interest to work in the group that has expert convenors and young colleagues working on similar analyses. In general we need to give more guidance to our young scientists so that the quality of their work and their papers improve.
Our young people are our strongest asset and not only am I very encouraged by the graduate students from U.S. institutions but also by the foreign physics contributions, in particular from China and India. I will commit to giving these young people an environment in which they can flourish and have a chance for a future career in our field. In addition, five of the last six assistant professors hired in STAR institutions were women, and I am very glad that we started a trend which seems to catch on in other collaborations as well. During my tenure as chair the UEC will highlight this issue in a dedicated panel discussion on career opportunities for women and other minorities at this year’s users meeting.
STAR is a healthy and strong collaboration which can be improved in certain areas: the quality of its science output, a more focused vision for the future, a better scientific discourse, more collegiality, and a more collaborative effort overall.
In my opinion, having a decisive and experienced STAR spokesperson is crucial not only for STAR itself but also for the future of the field as a whole. Over the past two decades I have gathered extensive experience in managing large groups of scientists, in dealing with funding agencies and laboratory management, and in dealing collegially but also competitively with other collaborations in our field. My main objective will be to serve every member of this collaboration, to fight for them and the collaboration as a whole at every level of contact with the greater community and government entities. I need your help though, and I look forward to hearing your suggestions, concerns, grievances, even prior to the election. Many of us need to become more active to keep our physics interesting and alive, and I challenge you to help me to improve our collaboration. I hope I can count on your support.
I believe the next three to six years are crucial for the survival of our field in the United States and therefore also the continued existence and operation of the RHIC facility for our foreign users. STAR needs a decisive and experienced leader to represent our strong physics program to the greater public, politicians, NSAC, the DoE and BNL, and to guide the collaboration towards the future. I have extensive managing experience in STAR and beyond STAR. And I believe that I have the necessary physics background to represent not only STAR but the whole RHIC community. I want to be the spokesperson because I believe my complete resume is needed to guide STAR, and potentially our whole field, through the financial and scientific challenges that are ahead of us. I believe strongly in the power of the office and I will use it to enhance the reputation of STAR and RHIC and to improve STAR’s scientific output.
There are three major goals within STAR that I will address in the following order. First and foremost we need to maintain and enhance our commitment to operating the STAR detector. We need, as a collaboration, to make sure that all subsystem are supported by a group of detector experts. I will actively challenge the Council on this point. We need to make sure that we are prepared when our detectors start to show aging effects, and we need to think long term and be prepared for a physics program that will last another decade or longer. Part of this operations pledge will be infra-structure groups, such as the software and operations groups. We have to make sure that sub-systems are committed to working with the infra-structure groups. We have to maintain the software core group and we have to enhance resources for the operations group to be better prepared for future detector and maintenance challenges.
My second priority will be the improvement of our scientific output through enhanced quality control, more active involvement of the collaboration in the paper writing process, and a more active engagement of the theory community by the STAR collaboration. I am planning to re-structure the physics working groups, in consultation with the active leaders and the working group convenors in STAR, and I am planning to add more documentation and review steps to the paper writing process. At the same time I pledge to keep tight timelines during the process. I will much more aggressively engage the international and theory communities to make sure that our results are represented properly and that our people get the chance to be heard. I will make collaboration and analysis meetings more scientific by branching out more non-related issues such as upgrades and software into specialized meetings. I will encourage scientific discourse and engage in scientific conflict resolution in a very pro-active way. And I will attempt to reverse the fractionalization of the heavy ion community in STAR.
Finally I believe that shaping an effective short- and long-term upgrade program in the next three years is absolutely crucial. Both the heavy ion energy scan and the 500 GeV pp runs are part of the new five-year BUR straw-man and I think they need less attention than the question of physics beyond 2012. Our upgrade program has suffered from not being focused and pushed recently, and I will make it a priority to bring spin and heavy ion people together to shape a vision, for the hardware and physics sectors, that addresses the physics from 2012-2020. We cannot effort to have our upgrades effort fall further behind PHENIX's effort. We need to be more structured in our proposals and negotiations with the DoE and BNL when it comes to future projects.
These are my three main priorities for the next three years.
I will layout the main physics accomplishments in plots during my presentation, but I think it is quite obvious that we have some 'golden' results and some 'unique' results.
Under golden results I would list
Under unique results I would list
We have contributed in a major way to the 'perfect liquid' story, and I welcome our critical assessment of this story through more detailed measurements. And I am looking forward to adding more to this list as soon as results such as the three-particle correlations mature to a point where they can be interpreted unambiguously.
The approach here has to be twofold. We need to better interact with BNL and DoE to push our upgrades through. And we need to better engage the collaboration through the Council to make these upgrades larger group efforts. There is a lot of physics interest in the ToF, across the collaboration, but efforts such as the HFT, IST, FGT are often single group efforts and have found little response from the collaboration. The physics scope needs to be expanded, possible hardware contributions by collaborators not yet involved need to be identified. We also need a closer collaboration between heavy ion and spin groups to go forward. Everybody needs to realize that the single detector (i.e. TPC) analyses in STAR have largely been done, and the time has come, as a collaboration, to adopt the integrated detector approach for future physics analyses. I think heavy ion physics has to progress more into the forward direction, and the AA physicists need to review what an EEMC, a FGT, or a FMS can do for them. This will strengthen the forward upgrades. The central upgrade could also use more spin participation, and it needs to arrive at a common 'central upgrade theme' for its hardware instead of three separate HFT, IST, SSD approaches. I will review the effectiveness of our upgrade management in the first six months of my term and I will propose changes if necessary. The spokesperson needs to become more decisive to show BNL and DoE that the collaboration is serious about its future. That also means pushing new ideas (e.g. improved calorimeters, enhanced PID) to the forefront of the scientific discourse in the collaboration.
I think a closer collaboration between heavy ion and spin groups, in hardware and physics analysis, has to be fostered. Working groups need to be re-structured to account for the evolution of the physics communities after almost 10 years of RHIC. We need to be more represented at the international level, suggest more STAR people for talks, and integrate them in international advisory committees and entities such as NSAC, PAC's, DoE etc. And there needs to be more of a physics discussion. Key active physicists in STAR are presently underutilized. We need to find out why and hopefully change it. We also should lead RHIC by having a clear vision of our relevance in the time of LHC running.
This question was partially answered in questions 2,4,5 but to be very specific in operations we need to eradicate 'single point failures' through actively challenging the collaboration by challenging its council members to supply detector experts. We need to enhance the strengths of the operations group (e.g. find a Ralph Brown replacement, hand picked by the operations leader) and of the software group (e.g. react to specific concerns or suggestions by the software leader). Clearly data processing in the time of higher and higher luminosities is a central issue, but we have good leaders in this area. We just need to work with them and listen to them.
The physics analysis output has to be improved. There is a lot of output but it has to be better quality controlled, it has to be more current in certain instances, and it needs to be more combined into larger and more overarching papers.
Differing opinions on a subject should not be suppressed but openly discussed. The spokesperson should be personally engaged in conflict resolution, but papers of sub-groups of the collaboration should also be encouraged when there is no resolution and results are just lingering although they might be very relevant. It is disheartening to me that a limited coverage detector such as PHENIX was able to claim certain physics topics such as fluctuations and particle correlations over a detector, such as STAR, that was specifically constructed for these kinds of physics analyses. I will spend considerable time early in my administration to address the conflicts that led to this problem in our scientific output.
I would ask the Council to support a third deputy. I would review the functions of the advisory board and streamline them to fit my administration. I would delegate very specific topics to my deputies. I would add a 'physics council' to give me advice on ongoing and future physics projects. This council might get involved in the paper process if this is viewed positively by the STAR council and the convenors. Physics working groups will get re-structured and we will pass a set of rules to give primary authors more guidance on how to interact with the structures in STAR.
First and foremost I will make the structure transparent to the collaboration and keep the collaboration informed through bi-weekly spokesperson briefings to the whole collaboration.
I am presently the chair of the Users Executive Committee until June 08. I think I can handle this additional responsibility, but I will discuss it with the UEC and the STAR Council if I get elected. The SVT project has been concluded so I hold presently no other position in STAR. I was admitted to ALICE recently, but I will revoke my ALICE membership if elected to STAR spokesperson.
I am also negotiating teaching relief with my university for the time of my tenure. I am planning to re-locate to Long Island, and in most weeks plan to spend one day at Wayne and four days at BNL.
Overall I am planning to devote myself 100% to the present and future of STAR and I am looking forward to it.
WSU is funded through an umbrella grant that covers the efforts of all four senior professors (Cormier, Pruneau, Voloshin, Bellwied). The money is equally shared and therefore it is often difficult to label the group's resources in terms of specific assignments. WSU was responsible for successfully building the STAR SVT and EMC detectors, but it has not very successfully contributed to either operation because of limited resources. The recently submitted DoE proposal asks for increased funding, but it was also predicated on a timed phase-out out of STAR in favor of an ALICE involvement. This phase-out was supposed to be completed by 2011. Tom Cormier is and will remain the project leader of the ALICE-EMC.
If elected, we would adjust the phase-out plan and end up with two equally strong groups at WSU, one in STAR, led by myself, and one in ALICE, led by Tom Cormier.
Profs. Pruneau and Voloshin would share their resources evenly over STAR and ALICE. If elected, I hope to accomplish a similar arrangement with other large groups such as Yale and LBNL. All my postdocs and students will be assigned to STAR exclusively in the future, and I will commit to funding a detector expert for STAR through WSU funds, pending the approval of our present DoE proposal.
Our European groups have always contributed considerably to our physics output, and many of the new senior hires in Europe are actually STAR alumns, but we have to be realistic that these groups will have to participate increasingly in the LHC. I expect the groups to be honest in their assessments towards us, but I also hope that certain groups involved in the upgrades (e.g. the French and Czech groups) can commit to a longer STAR participation and I will actively pursue them and make it as attractive as possible for them to stay involved.
The Brazilian groups are very involved in both hardware and analysis issues. They presently hold two convenor positions, and in the case of Sao Paulo et al. I just hope to maintain the present level of commitment, knowing that also this group is eyeing ALICE.
The Russian block of groups have a long history in the calorimeter and spin program and I will, with the help of Tim, assess their future involvement in the first six months of my tenure and then report to council and collaboration.
The Indian groups have committed to maintain the PMD and also their physics involvement through heavy ion energy scan. All groups are also involved in ALICE with a PMD, but here I really hope we can foster an arrangement that would keep a subgroup of the Indian groups involved in STAR forward physics beyond 2012. I will try to foster a collaboration between heavy ion and spin people to look at forward physics and plan to have the Indian groups very much involved in this project. In the past these groups were very successful in providing talented young scientists to STAR and I hope this will continue.
The Chinese groups are the key contributors to the TOF upgrade, and they have committed a large number of young, talented scientists to STAR. Many analyses in STAR are presently backed by Chinese students, and with Nu Xu, Huan Huang, Fuqiang Wang, and Zhangbu Xu we have very active senior leaders in the U.S. to help us integrate the Chinese students better into STAR. I am convinced that STAR can provide a very good environment for the students to further their career, and I am convinced that the Chinese groups are committed to the future of STAR.
Generally I am not satisfied with the level of communication and the shift commitment of most of the foreign groups. Language and time zone barriers make good and steady communication naturally difficult, but both sides need to be more pro-active to make this happen. I was involved in too many 'bad' phone conferences to ignore this issue. I was thinking about diverting STAR funds to keep the communication at a highest level, i.e. pay for good video and audio links in foreign countries. I also think a major portion of our discretionary funds needs to go to travel support for specific foreign individuals. We have a good history there and I plan to adopt many of Tim's plans. In return I expect the groups to be considerably active in the maintenance and operation of the detector. Shift requirements have to be taken seriously, and groups have to obtain the necessary visas well ahead of time knowing that a beam time is imminent. I will sort through collaboration lists together with the Council chair or a designated person and try to put a face behind every name, and also gauge everybody's STAR involvement.
Besides myself I will devote a deputy to the issue of relations to foreign groups, and I will also keep the collaboration informed on our progress regarding the effectiveness of our relations to the foreign groups.
In summary, the involvement level of a large part of the foreign institutions needs to be improved and guaranteed in a time of LHC running. The foreign institutions are a big part and potentially a big asset of STAR, and we need to integrate them better.