[DUSELScience] Message to EPP2010: The Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory and its complementarity to ILC

[Bernard Sadoulet]

Here is the message that the DUSEL S1 PIs sent to the EPP2010 
committee of the NRC. 
http://www7.nationalacademies.org/bpa/EPP2010.html

>Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2005 20:37:34 -0700
>To: epp2010 at nas.edu.
>From: Bernard Sadoulet <sadoulet at cosmology.berkeley.edu>
>Subject: The Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory and 
>its complementarity to ILC
>Cc: DUSELPIs
>Bcc:
>X-Attachments:
>
>
>								15 
>September 2005
>Harold Shapiro
>Sally Dawson
>Co-chair of the EPP2010 committee
>
>Dear Harold and Sally,
>
>As you know, the NSF is considering the possibility of constructing 
>a Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (DUSEL) in the 
>US. It is funding two studies: (1) a community-wide, 
>site-independent report of the scientific opportunities that such a 
>facility could offer and the corresponding infrastructure 
>requirements (Solicitation 1, or S1 for short), and (2) the more 
>technical study of two sites (Solicitation 2, or S2). As the S1 PIs, 
>we would like to answer some of the questions you ask in your letter 
>of 11 August 2005 to the community.
>DUSEL is fundamentally a multidisciplinary enterprise involving a 
>large number of fields, not only particle physics, nuclear physics 
>and astrophysics but also earth sciences, engineering and biology. 
>The major strength of this project is that it could make 
>revolutionary contributions in all these areas.
>From the discussions we witness within the underground physics 
>community, three main points relevant to the deliberation of your 
>committee are emerging:
>a) DUSEL will add important components to the vision of the particle 
>world that will be elaborated from results at LHC and the ILC (and 
>observations in the Cosmos). The properties of the neutrinos will be 
>mostly studied deep undergroundeither in neutrinoless double beta 
>decay or in the measurement of oscillations of neutrinos produced by 
>the sun, cosmic rays or accelerators situated some 1000km away. The 
>precise measurement of the neutrino masses, mixing and potentially 
>CP violation terms thus obtained will complement similar 
>investigations for the quarks that ILC will enable. Similarly, the 
>search for dark matter particles such as the weakly interacting 
>massive particles or Kaluza-Klein excitations is deeply 
>complementary to the search for supersymmetry or additional 
>dimensions at accelerators. Dark matter experiments have access to a 
>broad mass region, while the accelerators may be more sensitive in 
>the more limited mass region they can access. Moreover, there is a 
>rich science in the region of overlap between underground and 
>collider experiments; in particular, it is only the combination of 
>direct detection of dark matter particles in a deep underground 
>laboratory and their identification at the LHC and the ILC that will 
>be able both to pin down their origin and to prove that they are 
>indeed stable on the Hubble time scale and constitute dark matter. 
>The discovery of the decay of the proton in a DUSEL would similarly 
>provide unique information on the unification of forces.
>b) Deep underground science presents exciting discovery potential 
>for phenomena beyond standard models. The past decade is a good 
>example: the fact that neutrinos have indeed a mass was discovered 
>in underground experiments and it is highly probable that the high 
>sensitivity that ultra low background experiments have will continue 
>to reveal unexpected physics. It can be argued, exactly in the same 
>way as for the LHC, that potential discoveries at DUSEL will enhance 
>the interest of ILC.
>c) DUSEL will be an indispensable tool for the rapidly growing 
>fraction of the particle and nuclear physicists community interested 
>in this productive field of research.  They envision a US-based 
>DUSEL to be a prime facility in the world, able to focus the 
>national underground programs and attract the best experiments 
>worldwide. The science DUSEL enables is also well suited for the 
>education of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers because 
>of the physical and time scales of investigations and their 
>multidisciplinary aspects.
>
>Physics accessible at DUSEL is therefore clearly complementary to 
>the International Collider. There is, however, a potential tension 
>between the cost of the DUSEL project and the financial 
>recommendations that your committee is considering for the ILC. The 
>exact cost of DUSEL is not known at this stage, as it will depend on 
>the outcome of site studies and infrastructure choices. The numbers 
>floating in the community point to roughly $200M for the initial 
>investment and an additional $100M for the initial suite of 
>experiments. The time scale partially overlaps with ILC R&D: NSF, 
>designated as the lead agency, is potentially considering a funding 
>request in MRE/FC line for the FY09 budget. Note that the physics 
>experiments at DUSEL would be partially supported by DOE Nuclear and 
>High Energy Physics.
>These DUSEL numbers do not include the cost of a large proton 
>decay/neutrino detector, a long baseline beam and proton driver, 
>with a total price tag of the order of a billion dollars or more. It 
>is generally assumed that the decision timescale for the proton 
>decay/long baseline program may be similar to the ILC, and in spite 
>of our desire of having both projects in the US, international 
>negotiations may only allow us to have one on our soil.
>
>We understand that in a generally bleak budgetary outlook choices 
>need to be made, but there is a strong feeling in the underground 
>physics community that the future of fundamental physics is in the 
>simultaneous advancement of the frontier on three fronts: 
>accelerator, underground, and in the Cosmos. We hope that in your 
>final report you will stress the need to maintain a balanced and 
>diversified program that broadens as much as possible our field of 
>vision in particle/fundamental physics and maximizes the chances for 
>unexpected discoveries. DUSEL has a strong role to play in this 
>program.
>
>
>The PIs of the DUSEL site-independent study:
>
>Bernard Sadoulet (Astrophysics)
>Hamish Robertson (Nuclear Physics)
>Eugene Beier (Particle Physics)
>Charles Fairhurst (Earth Sciences and Engineering)
>Tullis  Onstott (Geomicrobiology)
>James Tiedje (Biology)
>
>--
>
>Bernard Sadoulet
>Berkeley Cosmology Group
>Department of Physics
>University of California - Berkeley 94720-7304
>Tel: 510 642 5719. Fax:510 642 1756
>Cell: 510 703 3840
>sadoulet at cosmology.berkeley.edu


-- 
Bernard Sadoulet
Berkeley Cosmology Group
Department of Physics
University of California - Berkeley 94720-7304
Tel: 510 642 5719. Fax:510 642 1756
Cell: 510 703 3840
sadoulet at cosmology.berkeley.edu
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