Nu Xu

 

Mission Statement from Nu Xu for STAR spokesperson


STAR is an outstanding experiment. Our mission is to answer two basic physics questions: (1) What is the QCD phase diagram? (2) What is the spin structure of the  proton?

Since the very beginning of STAR, our operations have been extremely smooth and productive, and we have made tremendous progress in answering these fundamental questions. We have published close to 100 scientific papers. More importantly, we have trained and graduated more than 100 students who will serve our field and the community at large. For the future, we have an exciting physics program with well defined upgrades.

In my view, the main challenges we face are: (1) Keep the baseline detectors performing; (2) Complete the upgrades of the STAR detector in a timely fashion; (3) Maintain our excellent productivity; (4) Optimize operations with advanced planning involving the whole collaboration in recognition of the fact that some collaborators start to split their efforts between STAR and other projects, e.g. the LHC. All of these require all institutions in STAR to work together and to promote our effort with the funding agencies, both US and international, to assure stable funding for the RHIC program.

My highest priority is to continue the success of the STAR collaboration. I would move to BNL and spend 100% of my effort to work for STAR. I will consult widely in the collaboration. Initially, I would plan to do the following:
  1. Establish a strong and energetic management team. The management will be transparent so that responsibility and accountability will be clear to everyone in the collaboration. Decisions will be made based on consensus.
  2. Our publication quality can still be improved. We will have a dedicated deputy and/or a publication committee to assure that we will have more publications that are timely and of high quality. We will work together with all parties to ensure a fair and timely internal review of manuscripts. For me scientific debate is the life of the experiment but I will insist that all discussions be collegial.
  3. The Physics Working Group is the backbone of the STAR physics program. We will consult widely to obtain the best leadership for the PWGs. We will encourage more young scientists to get involved in STAR programs and we will maintain a steady stream of PWG leaders.
  4. International collaboration is essential to our program. We will work to integrate more international collaborators into the STAR program, not only for the new upgrades, but also into management, into the PWGs, into computing, and into the operation of the baseline detector.
Looking ahead, the STAR experiment will explore the structure of the QCD phase diagram, provide crucial information on the properties of the equation of state of the medium created in high-energy nuclear collisions, and study the underlying mechanism for possible thermalization. We will also provide information on the spin structure of the proton, using probes at both mid- and forward-rapidity. The results at small-x will certainly help to shape and enrich the future Electron Ion Collider, which I believe is the long-term future of our field.

It is clear that STAR is the leader in the international effort to understand the structure of matter and its properties at extreme conditions. STAR is an excellent experiment - it is our experiment. Let us work together to make it better and stronger.

Responses to Spokesperson Questionnaire


1. Why do you want to be spokesperson?

STAR is a great experiment. Its potential for physics, especially with the upgrades, ToF, DAQ1000, FMS, FGT, HFT, to name a few, is tremendous. Moreover the STAR collaboration has many smart and energetic young scientists. I have had great fun working with them. Since the start of the RHIC program, we have made great progress in understanding the hot/dense medium properties in high-energy heavy ion collisions and the spin structure of the proton in high-energy polarized p+p collisions. The landscape of the field has evolved over time. New experiments at LHC will soon be in operation and the new physics project like EIC and FAIR are already on the drawing board. Therefore, at this important time, I believe that STAR must have a strong scientific leadership with a broad view of these international developments.

I have been involved in many physics issues in STAR in the past ten years. I am experienced in dealing with the heavy ion international community (see my cv and list of publication at http://www-rnc.lbl.gov/~nxu/). This is the greatest time to do high-energy nuclear physics. I want to be part of the action. I believe that I can lead the experiment for years to come and together we can do great physics.

2. What do you see are the major goals for STAR for the next 3 years?

Now we are in the middle of run 8. Both RHIC and our experiment are performing well so we will reach our goals. We expect to be able to collect sufficient data for the d+Au and the transversely polarized p+p physics programs.
In the next three years we have to accomplish the following:
(i) Collect sufficient amount of data of longitudinally polarized 200 GeV p+p collisions which will allow us to pin down the gluon contribution to the proton spin. Work to ensure the success of the polarized 500 GeV p+p collisions. Publish the
results.
(ii) Start the RHIC energy scan program in order to search for the possible QCD phase boundary. Publish the results.
(iii) Ensure the successful completion of the ToF upgrade and collect 200 GeV Au+Au data with minimal material around the collision point.
(iv) Work with the funding agencies and BNL management to ensure proper funding for the STAR upgrade projects. At the same time, work within the collaboration to make an upgrade plan that will effectively utilize all available funds.
(v) Establish STAR satellite computing centers to ensure sufficient capacity for data processing.

3. What do you consider STAR's primary accomplishments to date?

Please also see my Statement. Our greatest scientific achievements in my mind are the following:
1) Energy loss measurements – hot/dense matter created in heavy-ion collisions at RHIC
2) Strong collective flow and quark number scaling– partonic collectivity and possible fast thermalization in heavy-ion collisions at RHIC
3) Spin - A large transverse asymmetry at forward rapidity and small Δg at mid-rapidity.

4. What will you do to help ensure that our upgrades are successfully implemented?

Good planning in STAR and working closely with both the funding agencies and BNL management is the key to the success of our upgrades program. We will continue to have an active upgrade committee and they will work with the PWGs to develop a strong and well organized run plan to make full use of the added capabilities.
To me, a successful upgrade provides new opportunities for physics publications from these detectors. Therefore the connection between PWGs and detector experts in the collaboration is important.

5. Are there changes required to keep STAR at the forefront of heavy ion and spin physics in the world?

Part of the answer to the question is we do need more computing power. The capability of DAQ1000 means we will be able to collect hundreds of millions to billions of events in each run. In order to extract physics from the data, we need to be able to process and analyze the data. In addition to fully utilizing the RCF effectively, we will collaborate with other computing centers. With the advance of GRID technology, we should also try to establish a few smaller computing facilities outside US for STAR data processing and physics analysis.
In fact, work in this direction has already started.

6. What are the major problems you see with STAR operations currently? How will you solve them?

STAR has great detectors. We are lucky that these detectors are taken care of by dedicated experts. We should be very thankful. However, soon some of the expertise will no longer be available, partly due to retirement and partly due to the fact that some people have moved to other projects. In fact, even today, we do not have enough expertise to cover all detectors in STAR. We need to identify new personnel for maintenance and operation of these important detectors.
Recruiting professional and technical personnel working on STAR is very important. I plan to work with related institutions and funding agencies to make sure the detectors will be ready for each year’s data taking. I will pay special attention to university groups to make sure they are properly funded in order to participate in STAR operations and other STAR scientific programs.
In my view, working with the upgrades and baseline operation are as important as physics analysis for any graduate students. This is simply because without theses detectors we will not have data for physics. We should have a clear policy that every student must work on some STAR hardware project or cover the detector operation for an extended period of time before graduation. Recourses for computing are also important. I have addressed the issue in 5.

7. How would you change the STAR management structure, if at all?

Please also see my Statement. As has been mentioned, the scientific landscape has evolved since the start of the RHIC program. The structure of our management team should also evolve accordingly in order to maintain the effectiveness of our program. We will recruit experienced, caring and young scientists into the management team. I pledge to have a management team that is transparent so that responsibility and accountability will be clear to everyone in the collaboration. I also pledge that all decisions will be made based on consensus.
The PWGs should be restructured/regrouped in order to attack new scientific issues that are exciting at this time. This regrouping of the STAR PWGs will be worked out by the new management team in collaboration with the Council.
In order to assure high quality STAR publications in a timely manner, I intend to create a Publication Committee in the spokesperson’s office in addition to Council’s Publication Policy Committee. It will help to address all scientific issues
with STAR publications. This committee will be actively involved in the process of physics topics selection, quality of the data analysis, quality of the manuscript, and any other issues that might arise with each analysis. There will be a uniform and fair process for all publications. I will work closely with the committee.

8. What other professional commitments do you have that might interfere with your concentrating on the Spokesperson position?

As stated in my statement, I plan to move to BNL and work 100% on STAR during the spokesperson’s tenure.

9. What is the level of commitment of your institution to STAR?

RNC at LBNL is one of the largest groups in the STAR collaboration. We have successfully led the STAR TPC construction. At the moment, RNC is leading the HFT upgrade program, in collaboration with many other institutions in
the collaboration. PSDF serves STAR as the computing center for simulations and embedding tasks. Recently, PDSF has not kept up with our growing needs due to a shortfall in funding. However, we have submitted a proposal to DoE and requested funds to restore the capacities needed by STAR. Recently we also took responsibility for the SSD upgrade.
We have initiated US participation in ALICE and about 20% of our effort is committed to ALICE.
The RNC is fully committed to STAR and to high-energy collision physics in the world in a major way. We are committed to a successful upgrades program, to operations, and to physics publications in STAR.

10. How do you view the relations with non-US institutes? Do you think present levels of participation are OK or do you have any plan to suggest changes to that?

Please also see my Statement. The international collaboration in STAR is strong and healthy. Counting the number of FTEs in STAR, the non-US institutions constitute close to ½ of the collaboration. Our international colleagues have made invaluable contributions to our success in physics as well as in instrumentation.
Since some people start to split their efforts between STAR and other projects, it appears that we (STAR collaboration) will have a drop of FTEs at the rate of 5% per year till ~2010. This is potentially very dangerous to the collaboration. We must stop this trend. I will continue to work with all institutions to assure their commitment to STAR. While we are trying to involve all institutions in the STAR physics programs, we should make an effort to attract new institutions to join STAR. Institutions with expertise on hardware and/or computing and/or physics in the field of spin or heavy ion are all welcome.
I am willing to travel to all institutions, inside and outside the US, to discuss science and funding issues with collaborators and their funding agencies in order to secure the funds for their participation in STAR.