Minutes of
The 1st Plenary ACFA Meeting

April 8. and 9. 1996 at PAL ( POSTECH/Pohang )

As planned in the Preparatory meeting of ACFA held at IHEP/Beijing last summer, the First Plenary ACFA meeting was held at the Pohang Accelerator Laboratory (POSTECH)/Pohang on April 8.~and 9.~1996 in order to create the Asian Committee for Future Accelerator officially. The list of participants and the program along which discussion proceeded are shown below.

Participants

Hirotaka Sugawara (Chairman) Zhipeng Zheng (ViceChairman)
Setsuya Kawabata (Secretary) Shuhong Wang (Deputy Secr.)
Tao Huang (IHEP/China) S.S. Kapoor (BARC/India)
D.D. Bhawalkar (CAT/India) S.N. Ganguli (TIFR/India)
Yorikiyo Nagashima (Osaka U./Japan) Motohiro Kihara (KEK/Japan)
Shin-ichi Kurokawa (KEK/Japan) Won Namkung (POSTECH/Korea)
Joo-Sang Kang (Korea U./Korea) Moo-Hyun Yoon (POSTECH/Korea)
Swee-Ping Chia (U. Malaya/Malaysia) Siew-Pheng Moo (U. Malaya/Malaysia)
S.C. Lee (Inst. Phys/Taiwan) Ian C. Hsu (TsingHua U./Taiwan)
Virulh Sa-yakanit (NSRC/Thailand) Itti Rittaporn (NSRC/Thailand)

Program

  1. Opening Ceremony ( Chaired by Prof. W. Namkung )
    1. Introduction of Participants by Prof. T.N. Lee (POSTECH)
    2. Opening Address by Prof. Youm (POSTECH)
    3. Welcome Address by Dr. C.D. Kim (MOST)
    4. Report from the Preparatory Meeting by Prof. H. Sugawara (KEK)
  2. Discussion on ACFA Document
  3. Officials of ACFA
  4. Current status
    China Prof. T. Huang (IHEP)
    India Prof. S.S. Kapoor (BARC),
    Prof. D.D. Bhawalker (CAT),
    Prof. S.N. Ganguli (TIFR)
    Japan Prof. S. Kurokawa (KEK)
    Korea Prof. W. Namkung (POSTECH)
    Prof. M. Yoon (POSTECH)
    Prof.J.S. Kang (POSTECH)
    Malaysia Prof. S.P. Moo (Univ. Malaya)
    Taiwan Prof. I.C. Hsu (Tsing Hua & SRRC)
    Thailand Prof. V. Sa-yakanit (NSRC)
  5. Discussion
    1. Tau-Charm Factory (China)
    2. Thailand Light Source Project (Thailand)
    3. Linear Collider R&D (Japan)
    4. Conferences and Workshops
      Asian Particle Accelerator Conference and others
    5. Network Study Group
    6. Others

Summary

1. Opening Ceremony

After Prof. T.N. Lee, Director of PAL, made an introduction of participants, Prof. Youm, Vice-president of POSTECH, delivered his opening address by expressing his heartful congratulation to the Asian Accelerator Community for its successful organization of the ACFA and Dr. C.D. Kim, Assistant Minister, welcomed all participants in this meeting on behalf of the government of ROK. They mentioned the history of PAL as an example of a rapid growth of science and technology in ROK, and stressed the importance of sharing resources and promoting regional collaboration among Asian countries in order for Asian region to be as competitive as other regions, such as North America and the European Union.

Prof. H. Sugawara, Temporary Chairman of ACFA, reported the discussion and conclusions at the preparatory meeting for ACFA held at IHEP/Beijing last summer. Some of the important issues he remarked were the following:

  1. Research fields to be considered
    Explicit in the original proposal were high-energy physics and synchrotron radiation research. It was agreed to suit Asian situations, present and near future, by extending the consideration to others such as nuclear physics and accelerator related neutron activity.

  2. Relation to ICFA, ECFA and other organizations
    ACFA is independent of other organizations, but is similar to ICFA in its spirit. Thus, a cooperation with ICFA was considered to be important. ACFA will be also in close contact with ECFA( European Committee for Future Accelerators ).

  3. Decision making
    It was agreed to make any decision based on the consensus of the committee, not by vote.

  4. Term of officers
    The two year term was chosen to assure a quick rotation of the chairman.

  5. Observers
    The issue of Observers to the committee involves consideration of geography as well as international relations. According to the consensus in the preparatory meeting, no observer was invited at this meeting. The observers should be considered in this meeting because other committees or organizations have interest in ACFA.
He proposed to discuss the ACFA document, the Tau-Charm factory in China, the light source project in Thailand, Asian Particle Accelerator Conference, and possibility of setting up a study group of the information network at this meeting.

2. Discussion on ACFA document

A draft document of ACFA, approved in the preparatory meeting, was presented by the temporary officers. An extensive and in depth deliberation was done especially on the introduction, since it shows the features of ACFA, spirits and motivation. Examining consistency through the document, the meeting reached the final document,ACFA Document.

3. Officials of ACFA

The following temporary officers, nominated in the preparatory meeting, were approved to be the officers, based on the consensus of the participants:

Chairman : Prof. H. Sugawara, ViceChairman : Prof. Z. Zheng
Secretary : Prof. S. Kawabata, DeputySecretary : Prof. S. Wang
They will serve as officers until the Plenary ACFA meeting in 1998.

4. Current Status

In order to be acquainted with the current situations of individual regions, ongoing research activities were presented by the participants as follows;

BEPC and Other Facilities in China T. Huang
An Overview of Accelerator program in India S.S. Kapoor
Synchrotron Radiation at CAT in India D.D. Bhawalkar
Experimental Particle Physics in India S.N. Ganguli
Brief Introduction of Activities in Japan S. Kurokawa
Current Status of Accelerators and Their Appl. in Korea W. Namkung
Status of the PLS M. Yoon
High Energy Physics in Korea J.S. Kang
Status of Accelerator related Science in Malaysia S.P. Moo
Synchrotron Radiation Research Center, Hsinchu I.C. Hsu
Thai National Synchrotron Research Center V. Sayakanit

The copy of transparencies of these talks are kept by ACFA secretary. Secretary ask you to send the requestby e-mail if you need them.

5. Tau-Charm Factory in China

Prof. S. Wang introduced the Beijing Tau-Charm Factory and presented its current status. The meeting discussed intensively on the physics potential, technical feasibility for construction of the machine, and the construction schedule. The draft ACFA Statement on the Tau-Charm Factory was approved with minor change. (see ACFA Statement on Tau-Charm Factory.)

6. Thailand light source project

Prof. V. Sa-yakanit and Prof. I. Rittaporn presented the current status of the light The Cabinet of Thailand approved to set up the National Synchrotron Research Center in March 1996. They are planning to make modification of the SORTEC SR facility so that it will exhibit better performance and fit to the purposes of the NSRC project. The machine will be put in commission in September1998. The draft ACFA Statement on the Thailand Light Source Project was finalized. (see ACFA Statement on Thailand Light Source Project.)

7. Linear Collider R&D

Prof. H. Sugawara did not request the recommendation on this issue at this meeting but will ask it probably at the next meeting. He presented the current status of R&D and also future perspectives of the linear collider in Japan.

He introduced the unification plan of two institutions KEK and INS. The purpose of this new organization is to construct JHP ( Japan Hadron Project ), which has been pushed by the nuclear physics community for the last ten years. The newly unified organization will consist of two independent institutions, the nuclear and high energy physics institute, to which INS joins, and the material structure science institute, which comprises the radiation facility and the neutron facility. It also have a center for accelerator and a center for advanced technology, consisting of computing division, the low temperature division, the radiation safety division, and machining division. All these names are under debate. This new organization will start in 1997 and the construction of JHP, he hopes, in 1998.

8. Conferences and Workshops

The meeting agreed to organize the Asian Particle Accelerator Conference. The first conference was decided to be held at KEK fall 1997.

9. Study Groups

Two study groups were created, the particle accelerator catalogue group and the network study group.

The catalogue group is to collect the information of particle accelerators in Asia and to make a catalogue. The contact person of this group is Prof. S. Kurokawa (KEK).

The network study group is to study the current status of network in Asia and to identify questions and issues that must be addressed to establish an efficient network and computer environment with an enough quality in Asia. The contact person of this group is Prof. S. Kawabata (KEK). The chairman requests all representatives to nominate a study group member from each country and to let the contact person know it as soon as possible.

10. The second Plenary ACFA Meeting

The second Plenary ACFA meeting was decided to be held in Thailand spring 1997. Prof. V. Sayakanit and Prof. I. Rittaporn will host the meeting.