Periodic Reporting for period 2 - STRONG-2020 (The strong interaction at the frontier of knowledge: fundamental research and applications)
Période du rapport: 2020-12-01 au 2022-05-31
The strong interaction is one of the cornerstones of the Standard Model of particle physics, and its experimental and theoretical study attracts an active community of about 2500 researchers in Europe. The STRONG-2020 project brings together many of the leading research groups and infrastructures involved today in the study of the strong interaction in Europe, and also exploits the innovation potential in applied research through the development of detector systems with applications beyond fundamental physics.
The ambition of STRONG-2020 is to provide significant advances in our understanding of the strong interaction through an efficient and coherent synergy of selected experimental, theoretical, and instrumentation Work Packages, combined with world-class accelerator facilities, aiming at solving many fundamental open issues in various key directions. To this end, the project Consortium includes 45 participant institutions, embracing 14 EU Member States, one International EU Interest Organization (CERN), and one EU candidate country.
Together with host institutions of 21 other countries, without EU funds benefits, the project involves research in 36 countries and is structured in 32 Work Packages: 7 Transnational Access Activities, 2 Virtual Access Activities, 7 Networking Activities, 14 Joint Research Activities, Management and Coordination, Communication and Outreach.
STRONG-2020 will have a lasting and crucial impact by enabling an optimal access to European infrastructures and leading a coherent effort of theoretical and experimental groups towards research objectives that meet the most important open challenges in the physics of strong interaction.
The broad variety of topics tackled in the project creates the bases for multidisciplinary collaborations that stretch well beyond the hadron physics world. The strong link with applications and industry has a socioeconomic impact in different aspects and opens possibilities of creating new spin-off companies. The technology of radiation detectors, accelerator science, and computing currently used in the physics of the strong interaction, have an enormous impact by their applications in medicine, electronics, information technology, safety, among others. The infrastructures, in cooperation with the associated universities and industrial companies, train highly qualified experts in fields which are of utmost importance to society in Europe. STRONG-2020 will promote a series of actions directed towards attracting future generations of scientists.
The ambition of STRONG-2020 is to provide significant advances in our understanding of the strong interaction through an efficient and coherent synergy of selected experimental, theoretical, and instrumentation Work Packages, combined with world-class accelerator facilities, aiming at solving many fundamental open issues in various key directions. To this end, the project Consortium includes 45 participant institutions, embracing 14 EU Member States, one International EU Interest Organization (CERN), and one EU candidate country.
Together with host institutions of 21 other countries, without EU funds benefits, the project involves research in 36 countries and is structured in 32 Work Packages: 7 Transnational Access Activities, 2 Virtual Access Activities, 7 Networking Activities, 14 Joint Research Activities, Management and Coordination, Communication and Outreach.
STRONG-2020 will have a lasting and crucial impact by enabling an optimal access to European infrastructures and leading a coherent effort of theoretical and experimental groups towards research objectives that meet the most important open challenges in the physics of strong interaction.
The broad variety of topics tackled in the project creates the bases for multidisciplinary collaborations that stretch well beyond the hadron physics world. The strong link with applications and industry has a socioeconomic impact in different aspects and opens possibilities of creating new spin-off companies. The technology of radiation detectors, accelerator science, and computing currently used in the physics of the strong interaction, have an enormous impact by their applications in medicine, electronics, information technology, safety, among others. The infrastructures, in cooperation with the associated universities and industrial companies, train highly qualified experts in fields which are of utmost importance to society in Europe. STRONG-2020 will promote a series of actions directed towards attracting future generations of scientists.
The project was launched on June 1, 2019. During the beginning of the first Reporting Period, the work was progressing in accordance with the drawn plan. Specific organizational structures and decision-making mechanisms were established. Management Team, Executive and Dissemination Boards were formed. The members of the Governing Board were nominated by the Consortium institutions. Facility Coordination Panel was appointed to pilot the missions of the infrastructures involved in the project. The Consortium Agreement was adopted to specify the organization of the work between the participants and the management, aa well as to to clarify the rights and responsibilities of the participants, including the decision-making mechanism.
Starting March 2020, the work of many project Work Packages was impacted by the restrictions linked to COVID-19 pandemics. It was especially the case of Transnational Access. Indeed, due to strong travel constraints, the researchers could benefit from a very limited access to research infrastructures that complement each other and allow the exploration of specific strong interaction physics questions with different probes. To compensate at least in part for the accumulated delays, the Consortium has decided to request an extension of the project by 6 months via the Second Amendment that was accepted by the Commission.
The project duration is now 54 months and to meet the obligations of the GA, the WP leaders reconsidered their work plans and rescheduled some deliverables and milestones. These modifications were introduced with the Third Amendment accepted by the Commission. The end of the second Reporting Period was marked by a progressive return towards normal operation, and the WPs advance in their work to accomplish the tasks described in the GA in time. A number of important workshops could take place either in hybrid or in-person mode, and the access to TA infrastructures was significantly increased.
The project continued and increased its communication and dissemination activities. The official web site is regularly updated to provide the most pertinent information to the Consortium members but also to a broader public. The web site contains a special section where the project Newsletters are uploaded regularly. STRONG-2020 Public Lectures organized by Dissemination Board are also accessible via the project web site.
Starting March 2020, the work of many project Work Packages was impacted by the restrictions linked to COVID-19 pandemics. It was especially the case of Transnational Access. Indeed, due to strong travel constraints, the researchers could benefit from a very limited access to research infrastructures that complement each other and allow the exploration of specific strong interaction physics questions with different probes. To compensate at least in part for the accumulated delays, the Consortium has decided to request an extension of the project by 6 months via the Second Amendment that was accepted by the Commission.
The project duration is now 54 months and to meet the obligations of the GA, the WP leaders reconsidered their work plans and rescheduled some deliverables and milestones. These modifications were introduced with the Third Amendment accepted by the Commission. The end of the second Reporting Period was marked by a progressive return towards normal operation, and the WPs advance in their work to accomplish the tasks described in the GA in time. A number of important workshops could take place either in hybrid or in-person mode, and the access to TA infrastructures was significantly increased.
The project continued and increased its communication and dissemination activities. The official web site is regularly updated to provide the most pertinent information to the Consortium members but also to a broader public. The web site contains a special section where the project Newsletters are uploaded regularly. STRONG-2020 Public Lectures organized by Dissemination Board are also accessible via the project web site.
Regardless the pandemic that slowed down the work of several WPs, significant progress was achieved towards the project scientific objectives. Theoretical simulations initiated the study of hadronic observables allowing precision spectroscopy of exotic and excited states. Important steps were done to solve the two main puzzles to be addressed: the proton radius and neutron star. Two Virtual Accesses are the basis of extended simulations and provide data used in all stages of modern hadron physics experiments and allow for the design and optimization of future detectors.
Work Packages aiming at creating and stimulating common areas of expertise between experiments and experiment and theory have identified and deepened the topics leading to results of high significance. It is also foreseen that the implementation of innovative algorithms for particle reconstruction and tagging in dense and challenging track environments will be valuable for other fields facing similar challenges in topology recognition and involving machine-learning techniques. STRONG-2020 has already a strong impact on technological choices for future detectors at the LHC CERN and Electron-Ion Collider in the US.
The Work Packages dedicated to instrumentation play a fundamental role creating a thread between theoretical activities and core experimental infrastructures. They address the issues of high performance radiation detectors and hardware and provide a connection with applications, technological advances and industry.
Despite the COVID-19 crisis, the Work Packages could rearrange their activities and continue to progress in their tasks. A complete and complementary approach that the project provides will have a definite impact on the physics of the strong interaction.
As for socio-economic impacts, STRONG-2020 is instrumental in allowing European scientists to stay at the forefront of the physics of the strong interaction. The activities of the project will have an impact on the involvement of the European laboratories in the future hadron physics programme in Europe and worldwide. Furthermore, the collaborations between many of the participant institutes and industrial partners will create a strong synergy, bringing benefits for the society some of which are presently hard to foresee.
Work Packages aiming at creating and stimulating common areas of expertise between experiments and experiment and theory have identified and deepened the topics leading to results of high significance. It is also foreseen that the implementation of innovative algorithms for particle reconstruction and tagging in dense and challenging track environments will be valuable for other fields facing similar challenges in topology recognition and involving machine-learning techniques. STRONG-2020 has already a strong impact on technological choices for future detectors at the LHC CERN and Electron-Ion Collider in the US.
The Work Packages dedicated to instrumentation play a fundamental role creating a thread between theoretical activities and core experimental infrastructures. They address the issues of high performance radiation detectors and hardware and provide a connection with applications, technological advances and industry.
Despite the COVID-19 crisis, the Work Packages could rearrange their activities and continue to progress in their tasks. A complete and complementary approach that the project provides will have a definite impact on the physics of the strong interaction.
As for socio-economic impacts, STRONG-2020 is instrumental in allowing European scientists to stay at the forefront of the physics of the strong interaction. The activities of the project will have an impact on the involvement of the European laboratories in the future hadron physics programme in Europe and worldwide. Furthermore, the collaborations between many of the participant institutes and industrial partners will create a strong synergy, bringing benefits for the society some of which are presently hard to foresee.