In mid-September, the Long Baseline Neutrino Experiment (LBNE) collaboration, based at Fermilab, welcomed the participation of 16 additional institutions from Brazil, Italy and the UK. The new members represent a significant increase in overall membership of more than 30% compared with a year ago. Now, more than 450 scientists and engineers from more than 75 institutions participate in the LBNE science collaboration. They come from universities and national laboratories in the US, India and Japan, as well as Brazil, Italy and the UK.
The swelling numbers strengthen the case to pursue an LBNE design that will maximize its scientific impact. In mid-2012, an external review panel recommended phasing LBNE to meet the budget constraints of the US Department of Energy (DOE). In December the project received the DOE’s Critical Decision 1 (CD-1) approval on its phase 1 design, which excluded both the near detector and an underground location for the far detector. However, the CD-1 approval explicitly allows for an increase in design scope if new partners are able to contribute additional resources. Under this scenario, goals for a new, expanded LBNE phase 1 bring back these excluded design elements, which are crucial to execute a robust and far-reaching neutrino, nucleon-decay and astroparticle-physics programme.
