LhARA fortnightly Meeting 31^st August 2021; 14:00 BST

Notes

1. Notes of previous meetings and actions
   
   • Status of actions:
     • None recorded.

2. Preparation of LhARA proposal and work package reports:
   • Skeleton and planning: K. Long
     • An International Advisory Board for the CCAP is in preparation as the existence of such a body is required by ICL. This group will be of value in reviewing and commenting on the LhARA proposal.
     • A skeleton for the proposal has been created in WORD and on Overleaf. All lead authors have been contacted.
   • Update on preparation: C. Whyte
     • Excellent initial meetings with each of the w/p managers took place last week. The shape of the various programmes is being defined and some of the progress will be presented later in this meeting. The costing tool has been evaluated and not found to fail (so far). Initial discussions of schedule and risk have also taken place/
   • Work package reports:
     1. Project Management: J. Parsons, C. Whyte
        • Comments principally made above.
     2. Laser-driven source: E. Boella, N. Dover, R. Gray
        • See slides linked above. Points noted in discussion:
          • Need for a DAQ/flux measurement/recording system was pointed out.
          • JPa noted that the study of the stability of the flux was highlighted in the final milestone. Given the importance if this issue he asked that the possibility of moving the topic earlier in the programme be considered. WGJ also emphasised the importance of delivering a stable flux. The ensuing discussion included the need to measure the flux for each shot and the importance of feedback to source and accelerator in order to achieve this result. It was agreed that the milestone definitions and commentary would be updated to incorporate the need for the early and ongoing studying of how shot-to-shot fluctuations will be mitigated. WGJ commented that a systems-engineering approach would most likely be needed to achieve the desired result.
     3. Ion capture: M. Charlton, W. Bertsche
        • MC, WB, and C. Baker are working on a framework for the development of the Gabor lens. Years 0-2 would be used to carry out a series of test experiment to underpin the design of a new prototype. The new prototype design, construction, and test programme would be carried out in years 1-5.
        • The team is working on the required resources and the milestones etc. and plan to present them at the w/p managers meeting on Thursday and to the source/capture group on Thursday too. The plans would be presented to the overall LhARA group at its next meeting in two weeks.
     4. Dose-deposition profiling: J. Bamber, J. Mattheson
        • KL reported for JB and JM: the work of the summer students has led to a concept for the design of a proof-of-principle experiment and a s/w chain that runs from generation (in G4) of the energy deposits to the simulation of the acoustic signal. KL will work with B. Cox at UCL to take forward the simulation development now that the summer student placements have ended. Progressing the work will be discussed at the regular ion-acoustic profiling meeting that takes place on Wednesday morning each week.
     5. Vertical beam line and biological end station development: R. McLauchlan, T. Price
        • See slides; points noted:
          • GS: need to measure dose deposited in cell layer. TP accepted the point; how to do it would be the subject of development for and during the proposal.
          • GJ: the development of treatment planning improvements needs to be a long-term goal. TP noted that he felt that we needed to be aware of the issue as the LhARA beam properties may make an update to standard techniques necessary.
     6. Accelerator design and integration: J. Pasternak
        • See slides; point noted in discussion:
          • AK: is the integration of readout and control part of the "integration aspect" of this w/p? This was discussed and it was agreed to be important that the integration of readout and control be represented somewhere in the proposal. It is likely to have to come "later" in the programme as it is not presently felt to be an "in-principle" risk.
          • The precise specification of milestones for CDR/TDR for phase I and phase II was discussed. The TDR for phase I was felt not to be achievable in two years. The programme development needed to consider the two-year "preliminary" phase leading into a "pre-construction" phase. The definition of milestones needed to be developed with care as they would need to be achievable.
          • The search for the partner with accelerator/system integration experience was discussed. Discussions with personnel at the DL are underway.
     Note: the proposal needs to include a discussion of the way in which the overall programme needs to evolve as the programme develops in the "pre-construction" phase.

3. Design of capture solenoid for laser-driven spectral measurements: A. Beqiri

4. Outreach:
   
   1. Publications:
      • White paper:
        • Brief update KL: skeleton completed and being prepared in Overleaf. A further update will be presented next time.
      • LhARA design update:
        • Getting started, brief update: KL: JPa has agreed to lead the preparation of the LhARA design-update paper.
   2. Conferences:
      • FLASH
      • Vienna Conference on Instrumentation

5. DoNM :
   • 14Sep21

6. AoB

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