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FYI
The American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Science Policy News
Number 12: January 30, 2003

Report Lays Out "Roadmap" for U.S. High Energy Physics

"Our roadmap is similar to a long-range strategic plan, in the sense 
that it will inform and guide our steps towards our scientific goals.  
However, the roadmap is not a detailed prescription for the next 
twenty years.  Instead, it lays out the options.  It allows us to 
define our direction, focus our efforts, and plan the steps we must 
take.  The roadmap is intended to be a dynamic document, one that will 
be updated to adapt to changing circumstances, including new 
scientific results, technological developments, international 
partnerships, and progress in other fields." - "The Science Ahead: The 
Way to Discovery"

In preparing its Strategic Plan for release later this spring (see FYI 
#9), DOE's Office of Science will consider the guidance of its 
advisory bodies.  One of the inputs to the Office of Science plan will 
be a report prepared last year by a long-range planning subpanel of 
the High Energy Physics Advisory Panel (HEPAP).  This report, "The 
Science Ahead: The Way to Discovery," lays out a roadmap for the U.S. 
particle physics program over the next 20 years.

The HEPAP report "provides an overview of the field, as well as an 
outline of the steps we must take to reach our goals."  In a departure 
from many similar documents, it is not intended to be "a detailed 
prescription for the next twenty years," the authors say.  "Instead, 
it lays out the options" for planning purposes, acknowledging that not 
all suggested options can be pursued.  The report encourages 
international collaborations and partnerships with the related 
disciplines of astronomy, cosmology and nuclear physics, and calls for 
"a variety of scientific techniques," with the expectation that
"a new 
generation of particle accelerators will again lead the way."  It  
makes several key recommendations about the future of the program, 
including U.S. involvement in an electron-positron linear collider, 
and proposes an on-going panel to regularly revise the roadmap and 
prioritize options.

The report, according to the authors, lays out "a realistic plan" that
would allow the U.S. to remain one of the worldwide leaders in 
high-energy physics.  However, they note that this will require 
increased resources over the next 20 years.  They also look at 
constant-level-of-effort scenarios in which the U.S. "can play an 
important but selective role in high-energy physics, but not in the 
leadership capacity advocated here."  The report, which runs about 75 
pages, is available in pdf format at 
http://doe-hep.hep.net/lrp_panel/index.html.  The specific roadmap is 
provided in Appendix A.

The subpanel's major recommendations are as follows:

RECOMMENDATION ONE: "We recommend that the United States take steps to
remain a world leader in the vital and exciting field of particle 
physics, through a broad program of research focused on the frontiers 
of matter, energy, space and time.  The U.S. has achieved its 
leadership position through the generous support of the American 
people.  We renew and reaffirm our commitment to return full value for 
the considerable investment made by our fellow citizens.  This 
commitment includes, but is not limited to, sharing our intellectual 
insights through education and outreach, providing highly trained 
scientific and technical manpower to help drive the economy, and 
developing new technologies that foster the health, wealth and 
security of our nation and of society at large."

RECOMMENDATION TWO: "We recommend a twenty-year roadmap for our field 
to chart our steps on the frontiers of matter, energy, space and time.  
The map will evolve with time to reflect new scientific opportunities, 
as well as developments within the international community.  It will 
drive our choice of the next major facility and allow us to craft a 
balanced program to maximize scientific opportunity.  We recommend a 
new mechanism [a Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel, or 
'P5'] to update the roadmap and set priorities across the program.  We 
understand that this will require hard choices to select which 
projects to begin and which to phase out.  Factors that must be 
considered include the potential scientific payoff, cost and technical 
feasibility, balance and diversity, and the way any proposed new 
initiative fits into the global structure of the field."

RECOMMENDATION THREE: "We recommend that the highest priority of the 
U.S.  program be a high-energy, high-luminosity, electron-positron 
linear collider, wherever it is built in the world.  This facility is 
the next major step in the field and should be designed, built and 
operated as a fully international effort.  We also recommend that the 
United States take a leadership position in forming the international 
collaboration needed to develop a final design, build and operate this 
machine.  The U.S.  participation should be undertaken as a 
partnership between DOE and NSF, with the full involvement of the 
entire particle physics community.  We urge the immediate creation of 
a steering group to coordinate all U.S. efforts toward a linear 
collider."

RECOMMENDATION FOUR: "We recommend that the United States prepare to 
bid to host the linear collider, in a facility that is international 
from the inception, with a broad mandate in fundamental physics 
research and accelerator development.  We believe that the 
intellectual, educational and societal benefits make this a wise 
investment of our nation's resources.  We envision financing the 
linear collider through a combination of international partnerships, 
use of existing resources, and incremental project support.  If it is 
built in the U.S., the linear collider should be sited to take full 
advantage of the resources and infrastructure available at SLAC and 
Fermilab."

RECOMMENDATION FIVE: "We recommend that vigorous long-term R&D aimed 
toward future high-energy accelerators be carried out at high priority 
within our program.  It is also important to continue our development 
of particle detectors and information technology.  These investments 
are valuable for their broader benefits and crucial to the long-range 
future of our field."

"The theoretical and experimental accomplishments of the past decade
suggest that we are at the threshold of great discoveries," the report
states.  "Together, they show that our base is strong and our mission
clear."

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Audrey T. Leath
Media and Government Relations Division
The American Institute of Physics
fyi{at}aip.org
(301) 209-3094
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