The impressive breadth and depth of European particle physics was on display in Orsay, France, at an open symposium organized by the CERN Council Strategy Group at the end of January. Established in 2005, the Strategy Group is charged with preparing a long-term vision for European particle physics for presentation to CERN Council at a special meeting to be held in Lisbon on 14 July this year. The Orsay symposium was designed to give a strong voice in the process to a broad spectrum of European particle physicists. Some 400 came together in Orsay, and were joined by representatives of the North American and Asian particle-physics communities and a remote audience of more than 70.
CERN Council’s decision to establish the Strategy Group recognizes the distinction between the Council and the laboratory that has become synonymous with the name CERN. CERN Council is an intergovernmental body, established in 1954 to “provide for collaboration among European states in nuclear research of a pure scientific and fundamental character”. As such, it is an appropriate choice as the strategic body for particle physics in Europe: an agreement in Council will show the determination of the 20 member states to work together to make the best use of the available resources in uncovering nature’s most fundamental secrets.
The task of the Strategy Group is far from simple: Europe’s particle-physics landscape is complex, with the CERN laboratory in Geneva, a range of national laboratories that carry out world-class research in their own right, and numerous university- and institute-based groups. “Our aim,” explained Torsten Åkesson, chair of the European Committee for Future Accelerators (ECFA) and co-chair of the Strategy Group, “is to be all inclusive, to build on the diversity of European particle physics through a strategy that includes all elements.”
The composition of the group is a reflection of this philosophy, with one particle physicist nominated by each of CERN Council’s 20 delegations, together with the directors of the major particle-physics laboratories in CERN’s member states, and a number of particle physicists from CERN’s Scientific Policy Committee (SPC) and ECFA. Åkesson is joined by Ken Peach, chair of the SPC, as co-chair, and there is also a scientific secretary from CERN.
The approach that Åkesson and Peach adopted with the Orsay Symposium was to invite input from members of the European particle-physics community about their wishes and aspirations, while studying existing European and global infrastructure to see how Europe can best contribute to the future of particle physics on the worldwide scale. “If we are to propose a strategy for the future of particle physics in Europe,” explained Peach, “we can’t operate in a vacuum. We have to listen to what the community wants, particularly the younger members, since this will be their strategy.”
The Orsay symposium put the emphasis on discussion, with presentations kept short to allow more time for discussion. The result was a lively and all-encompassing debate. While the major infrastructures – notably the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and its possible future upgrades, the International Linear Collider (ILC) and future neutrino facilities – dominated proceedings, smaller experiments such as neutrinoless double-beta decay and a possible renewed effort on muon g-2 also had their place. In all the discussions, a key message that emerged was that physics, not technology, should lead the way. Another recurring theme was the date 2010, by which time physics results from the LHC will be pointing the way to future research needs, a full technical design for the ILC will be ready, and the results of the Compact Linear Collider study, CLIC, will have shown whether the concept has a viable future.
The Strategy Group next meets at DESY’s Zeuthen laboratory in May to distil all the information gathered in Orsay into a brief draft strategy document. This will be presented to CERN Council in July, where approval will depend on a unanimous vote.
• Further details of the CERN Council Strategy Group can be found at: www.cern.ch/council-strategygroup, where input to this important process for the future of European particle physics is invited until 15 March.
