Ebook: Future Research Infrastructures: Challenges and Opportunities

The Workshop “Future Research Infrastructures; Challenges and Opportunities”, hosted in Varenna (Italy) from 8th to 9th of July, 2015, was part of the series of the International School of Physics “Enrico Fermi” organized by the Italian Physical Society.

The purpose of the workshop was to bring together the communities of scientists working on and with Particle Accelerators in order to cast an eye on the current developments and on the perspectives of the future research infrastructures, discussing new ideas, technical challenges and scientific opportunities.

The interest and the expectation of the international scientific community in such infrastructures have not slowed down, and the major world research laboratories have planned or are envisaging the construction of new accelerators in order to foster the progress of science in many fields, from the High Energy Physics, to Nuclear Physics, Material Science, Biology, Medicine, Energy, Cultural Heritage and Environment.

The program of the workshop and the list of outstanding speakers was organized with the help of an International Scientific Advisory Committee. Talks on “science and applications with accelerators” were interleaved with talks on the “development of future accelerators”, with the scope of presenting the future horizon of the science and the need of new scientific instrumentation.

Thursday July 9th, was devoted to the perspectives in the high energy physics after the discovery of the Higgs Boson (M. Mangano, CERN). Three consecutive talks described the recent development of LHC High Luminosity (L. Rossi, CERN) and the International Linear Collider (S. Komamiya, Japan), and the ongoing studies about Future electron/proton Circular Colliders (F. Zimmermann, CERN). The Gamma Beam Source, ELI-NP-GBS project, in construction at Magurele, Romania, (C.A. Ur, ELI-NP, RO), and the future multifold perspectives of such radiation sources (L. Serafini, INFN) have shed some light on the use of high energy high intensity Gamma radiation beam in photo-nuclear physics and as exotic colliders. Of high interest was the talk about the European Spallation Source (R. Garoby, ESS) in construction at Lund (SE). In the last part of the day there was a dedicated session regarding the emerging science of coherent high energy X-rays (C. Jacobsen, Argonne, USA), followed by the scientific perspectives of X-FEL radiation (C. Bressler, X-FEL, Hamburg) and by FEL application in multicolour spectroscopy (C. Masciovecchio, Trieste).

Friday July 10th started with two talks presenting the status of the development of the European X-FEL source (G. Geloni, X-FEL, Hamburg), and the SwissFEL source (C. Milne, PSI, CH). Then, a sequence of three talks on Hadron Therapy (S. Rossi, CNAO), Bio-Medical Applications (A. Bravin, ESRF), Cultural Heritage (M. Cotte, ESRF) drew the attention on the relevant applications of Accelerators.

The future of the Synchrotron Radiation Sources was discussed by two talks on the Diffraction Limited storage ring frontier (M. Borland, Argonne, USA) and its implementation in the ESRF Ring upgrade (R. Pantaleo, ESRF). A particular interesting case of application at the Advanced X-ray techniques at SSRF in the Catalysis Research developed to contrast the serious environmental issues of CO2 emission in China (J. Wang, China). The session was concluded with the presentation of the future perspectives of the Swiss Light Source (A. Streun, PSI, CH), and the Elettra and Fermi sources at Trieste (A. Fabris).

Saturday July 11th, the first talk concerned the Laser Plasma waves acceleration technique with the latest promising experimental results (C. Schroeder, LBNL, USA), then the future scenarios in USA (J.B. Rosenzweig), China (Z. Zhao) and Korea (I.S. Ko) completed the workshop talks.

The workshop was concluded by a very interesting Panel on “The need of International World Infrastructures” moderated by Luisa Cifarelli (SIF). The contributions by Sergio Bertolucci (CERN), Fernando Ferroni (INFN), Amy Flatten (APS), Michael Lubell (APS), Z. Zhao (SINAP-China), S. Komamiya (Japan), W. Sandner (ELI-DC, EU), C. Spinella (CNR) were focussed on the future developments and international collaboration policies in the world scenario in USA, Europe, and Asia.

The talks and the final panel were well appreciated by more than 75 participants in the beautiful scenario of Villa Monastero on the Como lake.

We wish to thank the Italian Physical Society for the accurate and efficient organization, the Local Organizing Committee, the Villa Monastero support and hospitality, the International Advisory Committee, the speakers and the participants for contributing to make the workshop a success.

Finally our deepest thanks go to Maria Rita Ferrazza, Scientific Secretary of the Workshop, for her competent and dedicated work in the effective planning and smooth running of this workshop, and in the executive editing of these proceedings.

S. Bertolucci and L. Palumbo

The European Spallation Source (ESS) presently in construction in Lund (Sweden) will deliver neutron beams of unprecedented brightness to a new generation of scientific instruments. Generated by the 5 MW proton beam from a 2 GeV superconducting linac impacting a rotating tungsten target, the spallation neutrons will be slowed down in a set of moderators/reflectors. A total of 42 guides will be available to conduct them out of the target monolith to the different instruments. ESS being a “green-field” facility, it is still recruiting and maturing while construction proceeds. Major laboratories and institutions all across Europe are partnering with the ESS teams to help address the technical challenges inherent to the construction of such a state-of-the-art facility. Once in nominal operation in 2025 with between 16 and 22 instruments running, beam lines will remain available for installing up to a dozen more. Synergy with the world-class synchrotron light facility MAX-IV located on the same site will be especially attractive. In the longer term, the unique characteristics of ESS will also give rise to proposals for experiments on other physics subjects, possibly exploiting the upgrade potential of the facility. Challenges are described in this paper, as well as the way they are addressed. Medium- and long-term perspectives are sketched.

Progress in low emittance electron storage ring design necessitates an upgrade of the Swiss Light Source (SLS) in order to stay competitive in the next 20 years. It is planned to replace the storage ring by a new one providing 20–50 times lower emittance, while keeping building, beam lines and injector. Emittance reduction is challenged by the comparatively small circumference of the machine, but a new type of star-shaped multi-bend achromat based on longitudinal gradient bends and negative bends (anti-bends) provides low emittance at moderate focusing in a compact lattice. The concept is described, a first baseline lattice is presented, and the challenges and achievements in critical fields of beam dynamics and technology are briefly reported.

Elettra is an international multidisciplinary research center, specialized in synchrotron and free-electron laser radiation and their application in material science. The center is located in Basovizza in the outskirts of Trieste, Italy. Two advanced light sources are in operation: Elettra, the electron storage ring operating since 1993, updated to top-mode in 2010 after the successful completion and set in operation of a full energy booster in 2008, and FERMI, the new seeded FEL operating since 2010 and now open to the users' community. Key factors for the success of the two machines are the continuous effort to optimize the performance to the latest requirements and the close relationship with the users' communities. This paper provides an overview of the two facilities and discusses their development perspectives.

The brightness of accelerator-based X-ray sources has increased at a startling rate, even beyond Moore's law for semiconductor devices. We describe here the importance of brightness in X-ray science, the ways that X-ray experimenters and accelerator physicists each characterize X-ray brightness and coherence, and discuss the accelerator physics developments that are pointing to even brighter sources in the future.

Since 1988 when Pohang Light Source (PLS) construction began, the Korean accelerator community has grown very fast and has expanded from electrons to protons and to rare isotopes. Two major activities have been completed: the PLS-II (2009–2011) which is an upgrade of the old PLS, and the Korea Multi-purpose Accelerator Complex (KOMAC, 2002–2012) in Gyeongju. There are another two projects currently on-going: the X-ray Free Electron Laser Facility at Pohang Accelerator Laboratory (PAL-XFEL, 2011–2015), and the Rare Isotope Science Project (RISP, 2011–2021) in Daejeon. Besides these major activities, there are several industrial accelerators and medical ones. In this report, the details of these activities are summarized.

The High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) is a novel configuration of the Large Hadron Collider, aiming at increasing the luminosity by a factor five, or more, above the nominal LHC design, to allow increasing the integrated luminosity, in the high-luminosity experiments ATLAS and CMS, from the 300 fb⁻¹ of the LHC original design up to 3000 fb⁻¹ or more. This paper contains a short description of the main machine parameters and of the main equipment that need to be developed and installed. Preliminary cost, international collaboration and project governance are discussed, too.

In response to a request from the 2013 Update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics, the global Future Circular Collider (FCC) study is preparing the foundation for a next-generation large-scale accelerator infrastructure in the heart of Europe. The FCC study focuses on the design of a 100 TeV hadron collider (FCC-hh), to be accommodated in a new ~100 km tunnel near Geneva. It also includes the design of a high-luminosity electron-positron collider (FCC-ee), which could be installed in the same tunnel as a potential intermediate step, and a lepton-hadron collider option (FCC-he). The scope of the FCC study comprises accelerators, technology, infrastructure, detector, physics, concepts for worldwide data services, international governance models, and implementation scenarios. Among the FCC core technologies figure 16 T dipole magnets, based on Nb₃Sn superconductor, for the FCC-hh hadron collider, and a highly efficient superconducting radiofrequency system for the FCC-ee lepton collider. The international FCC study, hosted at CERN, is mandated to deliver a Conceptual Design Report together with a preliminary cost estimate by the time of the next European Strategy Update expected for 2019. This article reports the motivation and the present status of the FCC study, design challenges, R&D subjects, and the emerging global collaboration.

Extreme Light Infrastructure - Nuclear Physics will host two major research systems with features that go well beyond the present-day state of the art: a 2×10 PW high-power lasers system and a high brilliance gamma beam system. The facility will open new opportunities for nuclear physics research in fields such as laser-driven nuclear physics, tools and method for the diagnostics of laser-matter interaction, nuclear photonics, nuclear astrophysics, photo-fission and production of exotic nuclei, applications in industry, medicine, space science. The present paper summarizes the main characteristics of the ELI-NP research systems and some of the key nuclear physics topics to be addressed with gamma beams.

The development of novel Compton/Thomson sources to generate high-brilliance, high-spectral-density, tunable and fully polarized γ ray beams in the 1–20 MeV energy range opens new horizons in Nuclear Photonics, fundamental nuclear structure studies, photon-photon and photon-particle collider scenarios. We discuss here the features of this new generation Thomson/Compton back-scattering sources, with particular focus on the ELI-NP Gamma Beam source characteristics, and the possible set up for a low-energy γ–γ collider.

The treatment of oncological diseases with particle beams, at present protons and carbon ions, collectively named hadrontherapy, represents a modality known since long time but with steadily increasing clinical indications and positive results. The constant better dose distribution of hadrons vs. X-rays helps to reduce the exposure of healthy tissues and represents the requirement to reduce toxicity and thereby increase the therapeutic gap. Carbon ions are furthermore confirming their effectiveness in the treatment of more radio-resistant cancers difficult to treat with the conventional approach. We are therefore faced with a fast-evolving scenario: several new centers are now operational and others will be shortly, technology is evolving, the number of patients treated has significantly increased with the possibility of conducting rigorous clinical protocols. The publications on hadrontherapy have taken on characteristics of rash growth over the past years, but the main issue to be remarked is the change in the type of these publications: from physical testing subject to contents of clinical type, with increasingly large cases and discussion of new procedures or technologies to be applied in the treatment of patients. In this article the perspective of this evolving scenario is given, paying attention to the evolution of the different domains from clinical practice to medical physics, from accelerator technology to bioengineering and radiobiology.

The most recent light sources, extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and X-ray free electron lasers (FELs), aim to extended tabletop laser experiments to shorter wavelengths, adding element and chemical state specificity by exciting and probing electronic transitions from core levels. In this article, we intend to discuss how the advances in the performance of the FELs, with respect to multi-color pulse production, may push the development of original experimental strategies to study non-equilibrium behavior of matter at the femtosecond-nanometer time-length scales. This would have a tremendous impact as an experimental tool to investigate a large array of phenomena ranging from nano-dynamics in complex materials to phenomena that are at the heart of conversion of light into other forms of energy.

Synchrotron radiation (SR)-based techniques are increasingly benefiting the chemical analysis of ancient and artistic materials. The unique properties of these techniques (e.g. non-invasiveness, variety and complementarity of probing methods, broad spectral range, high brightness and therefore small probe size and high beam flux even in monochromatic mode and imaging capabilities) are particularly well suited in the context of the technical constraints associated to the study of these materials (preciousness, complexity, heterogeneity). This article reviews a selection of methodological developments aiming at a further integration of SR-based techniques into the full tool-kit available in the field of analytical chemistry for Cultural Heritage (CH). In addition to these developments, a stronger exchange between the two communities (through schools, fields conferences, …) strongly participate in strengthening the link between SR and CH. Finally, it is worth noting that the technology transfer from SR facilities to CH labs and ultimately up to portable equipment is another example of this cross-fertilisation.

The advanced X-ray techniques based on synchrotron radiation light sources provide many opportunities to energy-related catalysis research including CO₂ reduction, water splitting, fuel cells and batteries. Herein, we focus on the energy-related catalysis research at Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility (SSRF). Moreover, we summarize the beamlines in SSRF phase-II and some challenges in catalysis research. Next-generation light sources can provide advanced X-ray techniques with higher temporal, spatial and energy resolution to support future catalysis research.

Villa Monastero, Aula Fermi – Saturday, 11 July, 2015

The final session of the Workshop on Future Research Infrastructures: Challenges and Opportunities was devoted to a Panel Discussion, organized by the American, European and Italian Physical Societies (APS, EPS and SIF), which gathered a number of distinguished stakeholders, namely:

• Sergio Bertolucci (INFN LNF, Italy) – CERN Director for Research and Scientific Computing

• Fernando Ferroni (University of Roma La Sapienza, Italy) – INFN President

• Sachio Komamiya (University of Tokyo, Japan) – Chair of the Linear Collider Board

• Michael Lubell (City College of the City University of New York, USA) – Director of Public Affairs of the American Physical Society

• Wolfgang Sandner (Technische Universitat Berlin, Germany) – Director General of the ELI Delivery Consortium International Association (AISBL)

• Corrado Spinella (CNR IMM, Italy) – Director of CNR Department of Physical Sciences & Technologies of Matter

• Amy Flatten (American Physical Society, USA) – Director of International Affairs of the American Physical Society

• Zhentang Zhao (SINAP CAS, China) – Director of Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The Workshop, involving top scientists of the field, indeed created through this Panel the opportunity of a special forum to discuss the needs and perspectives of our community for future research infrastructures on an international scale and to freely exchange our ideas from both the scientific and strategic angles. I had the honour to moderate the Panel and here follows my brief summary of what was said.

Bertolucci recalled that particle physics has definitely become global. The LHC (Large Hadron Collider), FCC (Future Circular Collider), CLIC (Compact Linear Collider), ILC (International Linear Collider), DUNE (Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment) with its neutrino beam line, etc. are all global endeavours. The keywords for the future are cooperation, technology and education.

Ferroni pointed out that big facilities require R&D, ability, capacity, as well as training of new generations of experts with the needed appropriate skills. It is mandatory for our research community to preserve the expertise acquired so far. Moreover in this respect a strong collaboration with the industrial world is essential.

Komamiya mentioned first of all competition as a driving force for new projects. International motivations for new facilities exist and they come from the field of particle physics for accelerators and colliders, as well as from the field of materials science for light sources. In parallel with big, global projects, nevertheless one should not forget the importance of the medium and small ones which still nurture research on a national scale.

Lubell illustrated how in the United States research is intimately connected with politics and budget. The case of the abandoned SSC (Superconducting Super Collider) project was recalled as a significant example of the past whose consequences are still visible. The way the research system works today is a result of the science budget crisis in the US. Therefore internationalization for future roadmaps is badly needed.

Sandner illustrated the birth of ELI (Extreme Light Infrastructure) as the first ever international laser research infrastructure. For the first time, structural funds from the European Union were used for a multisite facility like ELI. The secret was: a convincing scientific case, a credible added value (key technology, photonics applications, etc.), a clear political and managing scenario. Today ELI is “the CERN of laser research”.

Spinella described how CNR, the National Italian Research Council, effectively participates in international research infrastructures like, for instance, ERSF (European Synchrotron Radiation Facility) and ESS (European Spallation Source), in particular with in-kind contributions foreseen for ESS.

Flatten emphasized the role of learned societies, like APS, EPS and SIF, to suggest, establish and coordinate proper models for collaboration on the international stage, with statements of wide impact that could be backed by renowned organizations, such as for instance IUPAP (International Union of Pure and Applied Physics) or OECD GSF (Global Science Forum).

Zhao, finally, stressed that for future international large-scale facilities the must is R&D in a high spirit of collaboration, with multidisciplinar and interdisciplinar procedures and practices. And this should also be a clear message for the young generations.

The conclusion of the Panel was a wish. That bottom-up surveys from our community on which should be our real needs in terms of big future projects, in order to address the most challenging scientific questions of our time, may be collected in a “white book”, and that this white book may serve as an inspiring reference for policy makers, governing bodies and funding agencies to shape the future of world research infrastructures.

Luisa Cifarelli

University of Bologna

SIF President