J-PARC Project Newsletter No.94, April 2024 dispatch
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J-PARC Project Newsletter
No.94, April 2024
Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex under joint operation by the
High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) and the Japan Atomic
Energy Agency (JAEA)
http://j-parc.jp/index-e.html
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HEADLINES AND CONTENTS
1. [Overview]
NEW MANAGEMENT STARTED FROM APRIL 1ST, 2024.
INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING WAS HELD.
2. [Accelerator Division]
OPERATION STATUS OF THE ACCELERATORS.
ACCELERATOR TECHNICAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE (A-TAC) MEETING WAS HELD.
3. [Particle and Nuclear Physics Division]
PROGRAM ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING.
HOT DISCUSSIONS TOOK PLACE AT THE HYPER-KAMIOKANDE AND T2K COLLABORATION MEETINGS.
STATUS OF THE JSNS2 / JSNS2-II (SEARCH FOR STERILE NEUTRINOS AT J-PARC MLF, E56 / E82).
WORKSHOP ON EXTENSION PROJECT FOR THE J-PARC HADRON EXPERIMENTAL FACILITY.
THE COMET EXPERIMENT AIMS TO SEARCH FOR THE LEPTON-FLAVOR VIOLATING MUON REACTION, MU-E CONVERSION, WITH A SENSITIVITY BETTER THAN 10 -14 IN PHASE I.
STATUS OF THE MUON g-2/ ELECTRIC DIPOLE MOMENT (EDM) (E34)
4. [Materials and Life Science Division]
MLF BEAM POWER REACHED A NEW RECORD OF 880 KW FOR USER PROGRAM.
PROPOSALS FOR 2024A ROUND WERE APPROVED.
THE MUON ADVISORY COMMITTEE (MAC) WAS HELD.
5. [Nuclear Transmutation Division]
THE TECHNICAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE (T-TAC) MEETING WAS HELD.
6. [Safety Division]
FISCAL 2023 J-PARC SAFETY AUDIT
7. [Information]
UPDATE! SUMMARY OF J-PARC HELLO SCIENCE
8. [Editorial Noten]
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1. [Overview] by Takashi KOBAYASHI
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NEW MANAGEMENT STARTED FROM APRIL 1ST, 2024
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The term of the J-PARC center director is 3 years, and Takashi Kobayashi is reappointed as director for another 3 years starting this April.
https://j-parc.jp/c/en/information/2024/03/27001312.html
https://j-parc.jp/c/en/topics/2024/04/04001319.html
Dr. Yukihiro Miyamoto continues as the Deputy director in charge of the safety. The deputy director in charge of the JAEA side is newly appointed Dr. Michikazu Kinsho, who was the former division head of the Accelerator division. The deputy director in charge of the KEK side is also newly appointed Dr. Takeshi Komatsubara, who was the former division head of the Particle and Nuclear physics division.
The new J-PARC organization chart can be found at https://j-parc.jp/c/en/about/organization.html
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INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING WAS HELD
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The meeting of the J-PARC International Advisory Committee (IAC) chaired by Dr. Robert McGREEVY at STFC was held on March 3rd and 4th at J-PARC in person. The committee heard presentations, discussed and will give recommendations on the performance and operation of the entire J-PARC.
https://j-parc.jp/c/en/forum-and-committee/iac-e.html
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2. [Accelerator Division] by Michikazu KINSHO
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OPERATION STATUS OF THE ACCELERATORS
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After the New Year's holiday, the beam operation resumed on January 25th as part of Run#91, which started in November, and the user program resumed both for the Materials and Life Science experimental facility (MLF) and for the Neutrino experimental facility (NU) on February 5th. The beam power was about 730 kW for the MLF and about 600 kW for the NU, respectively. The beam power for the MLF was changed from 730kW to 880kW via a change of the MR repetition cycle. The user program of the MLF was rather smooth for the MLF, and this program will be continued until April 1st. On the other hand, the user program of the NU was terminated on February 23rd due to a device failure in the NU facility.
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ACCELERATOR TECHNICAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE (A-TAC) MEETING WAS HELD
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The 23rd A-TAC meeting was held from February 5th to 7th, the meeting was held in a hybrid format, with the meeting mainly held on-site. (Eight of the nine committee members attended the meeting on-site.) The main topics of discussion at this meeting were the status of the accelerator, and responses to the previous recommendations. The committee considered the improvements, the prospects, etc. and gave recommendations.
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3. [Particle and Nuclear Physics Division]
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PROGRAM ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING (by Takeshi KOMATSUBARA)
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The 37th Program Advisory Committee (PAC) meeting was held on January 23-25 2024.
From this meeting, Taku Yamanaka (Professor Emeritus, Osaka University) served as the PAC chair. Updates on the two fire incidents in this Fiscal Year were explained, the status of the experiments and prospects for the operation before the summer 2024 were reported.
This time two proposals, including one test experiment, were submitted.
https://kds.kek.jp/event/48881/
The PAC report will be available through the following web page.
https://j-parc.jp/researcher/Hadron/en/PAC_for_NuclPart_e.html
The next PAC meeting, with new committee members starting from April 2024, will be held in the summer.
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HOT DISCUSSIONS TOOK PLACE AT THE HYPER-KAMIOKANDE AND T2K COLLABORATION MEETINGS (by Taku ISHIDA)
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After the successful continuous operation at 760kW beam power at the end of Calendar Year (CY)2024
Please refer to the press release.
https://j-parc.jp/c/en/press-release/2024/01/17001276.html
https://j-parc.jp/c/en/press-release/2024/01/17001274.html
We have continued neutrino mode beam operation and T2K data taking in February 2024. The refurbishment of facilities after 15 years of running, and upgrade of the accelerator and beamline towards 1.3MW is steadily in progress.
We had two collaboration meetings: The Hyper-Kamiokande collaboration meeting was organized virtually in early February for two weeks. The construction at the Kamioka mine is rapidly progressing. Last October, the ceiling part of the cavern, with 69m diameter and 21m height, was completed, and mining work will be completed within CY2024. The Program Advisory Committee for the project was organized virtually in March. The T2K collaboration meeting was organized on March 11-16 at J-PARC in person. ~150 collaborators attended and various hot discussions took place. On the last day, collaborators were also welcomed to a ceremony for the achievement of the initial design beam power, organized at Hitachinaka.
Publications for neutrino interaction studies in a few GeV region by near detectors:
Measurements of the νμ and νμ bar induced coherent charged pion production cross sections on 12C by the T2K experiment, K. Abe et al. (T2K Collaboration)
Phys. Rev. D 108, 092009 - Published 20 November 2023
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.108.092009
- First measurement of muon neutrino charged-current interactions on hydrocarbon without pions in the final state using multiple detectors with correlated energy spectra at T2K
K. Abe et al. (T2K Collaboration)
Phys. Rev. D 108, 112009 - Published 18 December 2023
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.108.112009
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STATUS OF THE JSNS2 / JSNS2-II (SEARCH FOR STERILE NEUTRINOS AT J-PARC MLF, E56 / E82) (by Takasumi MARUYAMA)
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The JSNS2 (E56) / JSNS2-II (E82) collaboration searches for neutrino oscillation over a short distance by sterile neutrinos at J-PARC MLF.
For JSNS2, the fourth long physics run has been successfully performed from Dec-2023 to Mar-2024 using a single near detector located on the third floor of MLF. During this run, 7,22X1021 Proton-On-Target (POT) were accumulated for a total of 3.95X1022 POT during 2020-2024 corresponding to 35% of approved POT (up to 22-Mar 2024). This run will be continued by June 2024. For JSNS2-II, the new far detector is under construction. The acrylic tank of the far detector was installed on 14-Feb 2024. Three quarter of the veto PMTs (36 PMTs) will be installed, and the liquid scintillator will be filled within a few months. JSNS2-II aims to start the data taking soon.
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WORKSHOP ON EXTENSION PROJECT FOR THE J-PARC HADRON EXPERIMENTAL FACILITY (by Koji MIWA)
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The 4th international workshop on the Extension Project for the J-PARC Hadron Experimental Facility (HEF-ex 2024)" was held at J-PARC on February 19 -21, 2024. This is a series of workshops that have been held since 2021.
In this workshop, we continued to discuss the physics case that connects both the "present" and the "future" Hadron Experimental Facility at J-PARC. It has covered a wide range of topics in flavor, hadron, and strangeness nuclear physics related to both experimental and theoretical activities being conducted at the facility. Speakers in plenary sessions of the three fields were invited and parallel sessions of hadron and strangeness nuclear physics were also organized. A total of 177 participants, including 35 overseas researchers, registered for the conference. 99 people, including 12 overseas researchers, attended the conference at the venue. In this workshop, we were able to have intensive discussions about the possibilities of new physics cases at J-PARC from an experimental and theoretical perspective and research trends at overseas facilities. We are going to collect the ideas presented at the workshop as "mini proceedings" to summarize and provide more realistic ideas for future programs.
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THE COMET EXPERIMENT AIMS TO SEARCH FOR THE LEPTON-FLAVOR VIOLATING MUON REACTION, MU-E CONVERSION, WITH A SENSITIVITY BETTER THAN IN PHASE I. (by Satoshi MIHARA)
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The COMET facility construction is in progress. Construction of the capture solenoid magnet used to collect pions and transport them to the beam transport magnet is in the final stage at a manufacturer. The magnet will be delivered and installed in the COMET experiment area in the summer 2024. Preparation of the experimental area continues in parallel. The detector solenoid magnet will be delivered in 2024, followed by cooling and excitation tests at J-PARC.
The COMET group had a hybrid collaboration meeting in February. More than 50 members joined to discuss the status of facility and detector construction, analysis tool development as well as simulation study, and schedule toward the start of physics data acquisition.
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STATUS OF THE MUON g-2/ ELECTRIC DIPOLE MOMENT (EDM) (E34) (by Tsutomu MIBE)
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The E34 collaboration aims for precision measurements of the muon anomalous magnetic moment and its electric dipole moment. The laser room for the ultra-slow muon production as well as the platform for the RF power supplies was successfully constructed. The engineering design of the H-line experimental bldg. is in the final stage. The collaboration has taken data for the evaluation of the muon source at the MLF S2 area since mid-March. A domestic workshop on muon imaging by using muon acceleration technology was organized at KEK Tsukuba campus (https://conference-indico.kek.jp/event/249/).
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4. [Materials and Life Science Division]
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Neutron Source; MLF BEAM POWER REACHED A NEW RECORD OF 880 KW FOR USER PROGRAM (by Katsuhiro HAGA)
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MLF operated with the beam power of 650 kW in December 2023 due to the low gas injection flow rate at the bubbler of the mercury target. In January 2024, the MLF was shut down for one month to replace the chiller of the facility air conditioning system. By the dedicated works to increase the gas flow rate at the bubbler, it was almost recovered to the normal value and the beam operation started with 730 kW from February 5. After the break of 4.5 days due to the accelerator trouble, the beam power was further increased to 810 kW on February 12, and then reached a record of 880 kW at MLF after an accelerator mode change of the MR on February 29. The neutron source has been operating stably with the excellent facility availability of over 90 %.
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Neutron Instruments and Science; PROPOSALS FOR 2024A ROUND WERE APPROVED. (by Mitsutaka NAKAMURA)
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The 2024A call for general use proposals was closed on November 7, and 301 applications for neutron experiments were received. Of these, 147 were officially approved by the MLF Advisory Board on February 27. The proposal acceptance rate was 48%. Of the proposals accepted, 32 applications were submitted by students as Principal Investigators, 16 of which were accepted. In addition, three applications for non-proprietary proposals were submitted, all of which were approved.
The Neutron Advisory Committee (NAC-2024) met on February 19 and 20 with Dr. Jamie Schulz (Director, Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering, ANSTO) as chair. The topics on neutron source, instruments & devices, outcomes, and future prospects were reported and discussed. On March 5-7, the Quantum Beam Science Festa (QBSF) 2023 as well as the 15th MLF symposium were held in Mito. The QBSF, which began in 2015, has been held with the aim of providing not only a forum for exchanging information between facility staff and users, but also a place to consider the future of quantum beam research through interaction among researchers using different probes. There were over 600 participants registered.
Recent press releases from MLF:
BL12 HRC on Jan. 11
"Field control of quasiparticle decay in a quantum antiferromagnet" https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-44435-0
BL05 NOP on Jan. 13
"Development of Neutron Interferometer using Multilayer Mirrors and Measurements of Neutron-Nuclear Scattering Length with Pulsed Neutron Source" https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.023402
BL20 iMATERIA on Feb. 8
"Unified understanding and mitigation of detrimental phase transition in cobalt-free LiNiO2" https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ensm.2024.103200
BL15 TAIKAN on Mar. 5
"Effects of Fe ions, UV irradiation, and heating on microscopic structures of black lacquer films" https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.3c03412
BL22 RADEN on Mar. 14
"Experimental visualization of water/ice phase distribution at cold start for practical-sized polymer electrolyte fuel cells" https://doi.org/10.1038/s44172-024-00176-6
Group photo of the NAC members and MLF staff
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Muon Science Facility (MUSE); THE MUON ADVISORY COMMITTEE (MAC) WAS HELD. (by Naritoshi KAWAMURA)
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The MUSE facility operation was resumed on 5/Feb after a suspension during the New Year holidays and replacement work of the air-conditioner of the MLF building. The operation has been stable since then, though a week's stoppage happened just after the resumption due to an unexpected trouble with the accelerator.
In the Muon Science Proposal Review Committee (MSPRC) meeting, 45 proposals submitted for the 2024A period were reviewed, with 37 approved and 8 reserved. The competition rate was more relaxed since some fundamental physics studies started to be performed in the H line as a part of the S1-type programs.
The Muon Advisory Committee (MAC) meeting was held from February 21st to 22nd in a hybrid style (J-PARC site in person and Zoom) under the chair of Prof. Thomas Prokscha, Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI). The progress in each beamline/instrument was reported by their managers. The committee was impressed and suggested meaningful recommendations for continuous development. Also, the human resource development and prospects of MUSE were discussed in the context of the world's facilities status as presented by the committee members, representatives of the facility, resulting in a strong support for the upgrade of the existing target station and the plan for a second target station of MLF.
Group photo of the MAC members (the front row) and facility staff
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5. [Nuclear Transmutation Division]by HAYANORI TAKEI
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THE TECHNICAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE (T-TAC) MEETING WAS HELD
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The 10th TEF (Transmutation Experimental Facility) Technical Advisory Committee (T-TAC) meeting was held at the J-PARC Research Building on January 29th and 30th in 2024. Three Japanese and four foreign committee members from Belgium, Germany, and Switzerland gathered to review the current progress of the TEF facility plan and related research and development work. At the meeting, after an overview of J-PARC and Nuclear Transmutation Division, division staff introduced their activities in four research areas: the facility design update, the lead-bismuth eutectic alloy technology development, the proton beam technology development and the super-conducting accelerator development.
On March 4th in 2024, we received the final T-TAC report in which 30 observations, 33 comments and 17 recommendations were provided. In the concluding remarks section, T-TAC suggested that "a clear scope (re) definition of TEF and an associated implementation strategy with a realistic planning should be worked out."
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6. [Safety Division] by Kotaro BESSHO
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FISCAL 2023 J-PARC SAFETY AUDIT
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The fiscal 2023 J-PARC safety audit was conducted by two auditors on Dec. 8th and 18th.
The review points were as follows.
1) Countermeasures for fire accidents occurred in 2023
2) Organizational structure for safety management
3) Safety management in works
4) Emergency responses
5) Fostering and maintaining safety education and safety culture
The item 1) is a new one, established in response to two fires in the MR Power Supply Building No.2 of J-PARC on April 25 and in the Power Supply Building of J-PARC Hadron Experimental Facility on June 22. The auditors gave us valuable recommendations, such as necessity of measures against old equipment, human resource development, and establishing clear standards.
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7. [Information]
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UPDATE! SUMMARY OF J-PARC HELLO SCIENCE
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Experience an hour of Hello Science, a science talk hosted by J-PARC, condensed into just three minutes!
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoJacoLqZ0cVX848gIYxcJyUbUSKihu3F&si=enDI-nea08r6DgxE
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8. [Editorial Note]
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Past issues are available from the link below.
http://j-parc.jp/c/en/topics/project-newsletter/index.html
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┃ Editorial Board:
┃ Hidetomo OGURI (Chair) : oguri.hidetomo[at]jaea.go.jp
┃ Katsuhiro SHINTO: shinto.katsuhiro[at]jaea.go.jp
┃ Kyoichiro OZAWA: ozawa[at]post.kek.jp
┃ Kyoko AIZAWA: akyouko[at]post.j-parc.jp
┃ Hayanori TAKEI: takei.hayanori[at]jaea.go.jp
┃ Jean-Michel POUTISSOU (English Editor): jmp[at]triumf.ca
┃ Chiaki SHIRAISHI (Secretary): shiraishi.chiaki[at]jaea.go.jp
┃ * Please replace "(at)" with "@" when you enter an email address.
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