LANSCE CALL FOR LETTERS OF INTENT

[Audrey Archuleta]

The following document is available on the WWW with links to referenced
sources at http://www.lansce.lanl.gov/fac_upgrades.html


The Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) is operated by the US
Department of Energy (DOE) as a National User facility for defense-related
and basic research using spallation neutrons [1,2].  A significant upgrade
of the short-pulse spallation source at LANSCE is planned that will
increase its beam power to 160 kW and add up to seven new neutron
scattering spectrometers.  These enhancements [3,4] of the Manuel Lujan Jr.
Neutron Scattering Center (the Lujan Center) will be funded by the DOE's
Office of Defense Programs and its Office of Energy Research.

LANSCE is seeking Letters of Intent from members of the U.S. and
international scientific communities who wish to participate on
Spectrometer Development Teams (SDT) that will design and construct new,
user-friendly, neutron-scattering spectrometers at the Lujan Center as well
as operate them for their own scientific programs.  Letters of Intent are
welcome from groups of scientists or individuals with interests in either
basic or applied research. We particularly encourage Letters from
broadly-based groups that combine fundamental research activities with
defense-related or industrial research.  LANSCE will assist in forming
associations between groups and individuals who are planning similar
spectrometers.

A significant fraction of the funding for the construction of spectrometers
($17.5M over 5 fiscal years starting in FY98) will be provided by the DOE's
Office of Basic Energy Sciences (BES).  To leverage this funding and allow
the maximum number of advanced spectrometers to be constructed, SDTs are
encouraged to seek additional funding from other sources.

The amount of beam time allocated to an SDT after a spectrometer is
commissioned will depend on the extent and quality of its proposed
scientific program, on the usefulness of the proposed spectrometer to the
broad scientific community, on the level and complexity of the effort
required of the SDT to design and construct their spectrometer, and on the
amount of non-BES financial commitment the SDT brings to the construction
project.  Beam time allocations will be in the range of 35 to 75 percent of
the facility operating time, which will be eight months per year beginning
in 1998.  Each SDT will be reviewed during the third year following
spectrometer completion and annually thereafter.  Continued SDT status will
be based on the quality of the SDT's past scientific program and on its
proposed future scientific activity [5].

Los Alamos National Laboratory will coordinate the overall Spectrometer
Construction Project [4,5] to ensure the most efficient use of funds.  In
particular, the Laboratory will oversee the development and construction of
standard components identified by the SDTs, make available tools to assist
with detailed spectrometer design [8], provide requested engineering
assistance for critical components, and take responsibility for safety and
configuration management.  The roles and responsibilities of the Laboratory
and each SDT may vary according to the level of experience embodied in the
SDT, but will be codified in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between
LANSCE and each SDT.  This MOU will be in place before detailed design of a
spectrometer begins.

LANSCE has established a Proposal Evaluation Committee (PEC) with broad
representation from the scattering community to evaluate proposals for
spectrometer construction and to make recommendations to LANSCE management
on the conduct of the project [5].  In addition to selecting the best SDT
proposals, PEC responsibilities include:  identifying the needs of the
broad scientific community and ensuring that these are met, recommending
the amount of BES funding allocated to an SDT, and recommending the
percentage of beam time made available to the SDT after spectrometer
construction is completed.  A more detailed description of the PEC role can
be found in its charter [5].

Your letter of intent should contain the following information:

1.  Contact person (name, affiliation, address, telephone, fax, e-mail).

2.  Names and affiliations of other group members.

3.  Major area(s) of basic or applied scientific interest of group members
and a brief description of their relevant experience.

4.  Description of the spectrometer you would like to construct, including
the type of information (type of moderator required, flight path lengths,
detector coverage, momentum and/or energy range and resolution,
specifications of choppers and optical elements, etc. [6,7,8]) that is
currently provided to LANSCE users about existing Lujan Center
spectrometers at our web site
http://www.lansce.lanl.gov/mlnsc/expfacilities.html.  The information
provided should include an estimate of the spectrometer cost and the time
required to design and build it.

5.  Description of the research program that you propose to conduct with
the new spectrometer.  This description should be sufficient to allow an
assessment of the potential impact of the research but need not provide
details of individual experiments.  A summary of no more than five pages is
all that is required at this stage.

6.  Brief description of other scientific areas that could be addressed
using the spectrometer you propose and an estimate of the size of the
potential general user community that might use the spectrometer.

Letters of Intent will be evaluated in May 1997 by the PEC.  Once a Letter
of Intent is accepted, an SDT will be asked to generate a full proposal for
review by the PEC and/or by expert groups chosen by the PEC.  BES funding
for detailed design and construction will be allocated after the full
proposal has been accepted.  More details of this process can be found at
the LANSCE web site [4].

Please submit your Letter of Intent by April 30, 1997, to the Executive
Secretary of the PEC, Dr. G. Smith, electronically to gsmith at lanl.gov or as
hard copy to Dr. G. Smith, MS H805, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los
Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA.

In addition to references cited in the preceding text, the following
bibliography contains a number of references that potential SDT members
will find useful for preparing Letters of Intent [9,10].

Questions about the Spectrometer Development Project should be addressed
either to the PEC Executive Secretary, Dr. G. Smith at gsmith at lanl.gov, or
the LANSCE User Program Coordinator, Ms. A. Archuleta at ala at lanl.gov.

Bibliography and Notes

[1] A general description of the LANSCE facility, its mission, and
newsletters describing some of its recent scientific accomplishments can be
found at the LANSCE web site at http://www.lansce.lanl.gov.

[2] The LANSCE User Group (LUG) actively represents the interests of the
diverse community of scientists who use LANSCE (including materials
scientists, chemists, biologists, nuclear physicists, geologists,
engineers, etc.) to LANSCE management.  More details of LUG activities,
including the LUG Charter and a list of LUG Executive Committee members can
be found at our web site under http://www.lansce.lanl.gov/LUGnews.html.
Membership of the LUG is open to all potential users of the facility.

[3] A description of the changes that will be made to the accelerator to
achieve the 160 kW of beam power can be downloaded from the LANSCE web site
at http://www.lansce.lanl.gov/fac_upgrades.html.

[4] The LANSCE proposal to the DOE for the Spectrometer Enhancement Project
is described in the LUG News and can be downloaded from the LANSCE web site
at http://www.lansce.lanl.gov/SpecProp.rtf".

[5] A list of PEC members, the PEC Charter, and summaries of minutes of its
meetings are available at the LANSCE web site at
http://www.lansce.lanl.gov/PECMemberList.html.  The minutes of the December
16-17, 1996, meeting contain many recommendations concerning the conduct of
the Spectrometer Development Project, the way in which Letters of Intent
will be judged, etc.  LANSCE management intends to follow these
recommendations.

[6] The layout of the Lujan Center experiment halls is given in the scale
drawing entitled Experiment Facilities at LANSCE and is available at the
LANSCE web site http://www.lansce.lanl.gov/mlnsc/expfacilities.html.  This
document shows the location of vacant flight paths and describes the
neutron moderators that will service them.

[7] The Lujan Center target/moderator system is currently being replaced
with a unit that can be serviced in a relatively straightforward manner.
This means that the moderators specified in [6] could be changed in the
future if the suite of new spectrometers were better served by a different
set of moderators.  Information about the performance of neutron moderators
at the Lujan Center (including neutron spectra, pulse shapes, etc.) is
available at the LANSCE web site at
http://www.lansce.lanl.gov/mlnsc/expfacilities.html.  Letters of Intent
should specify the most appropriate type of neutron moderator for the
proposed spectrometer, as well as moderators that would be acceptable.  If
a vacant flight path is served by an appropriate moderator and has
sufficient floor space, the Letter of Intent may suggest a location for a
proposed spectrometer.

[8] During the design phase of a spectrometer, LANSCE will make available
to proposers a program that allows Monte Carlo simulation of most types of
neutron scattering instruments.  For those spectrometers that cannot yet be
simulated, LANSCE will work with proposers to develop suitable simulation
tools.

[9] Several recent meetings and documents published in the US have
discussed the scientific potential and instrumentation relevant to advanced
pulsed spallation sources.  For example, "IPNS Upgrade: A Feasibility
Study," April 1995, ANL-95/13, Chapter V, Experimental Facilities, which
will be available on the IPNS Web site (http://pnsjph.pns.anl.gov/ipns.htm)
approximately  mid-February; NSNS instrument workshop information to be
published in the next issue of Neutron News in March/April and the WWW in
mid-February; "Technology and Science at a High-Power Spallation Source,"
proceedings of a May 13-16, 1993, workshop at Argonne National Laboratory,
available through the LANSCE User Office at ala at lanl.gov or 505-665-1010;
"Neutron Scattering Instrumentation for High Power Spallation Source," a
Los Alamos National Laboratory publication, which will be available on the
WWW in mid-February; and "New Sources and Applications," DOE/ER-0607P,
January 1994, available through the DOE Office of Scientific and Technical
Information, 615-576-8401.

[10] The European neutron scattering community has recently carried out a
very detailed study of a proposed 5 MW pulsed spallation neutron source.
Under the auspices of that study a workshop was held in 1992 to discuss
appropriate neutron scattering instrumentation.  The publication
"Instrumentation and Technology for the European Spallation Source," June
1992, RAL-92-040, details the results of that workshop and is available
from the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory by calling their User Liaison
Office at 44-1235-445592.  In addition, the European Science Foundation
held a workshop, "Scientific Prospects for Neutron Scattering with Present
and Future Sources," in 1996 to discuss scientific areas that can be
addressed by neutron scattering at present and future neutron sources.  The
report of this workshop can be obtained from the WWW at
http://www.esf.org/ftp/pdf/pesc/NeutronScattering.pdf.

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Audrey L. Archuleta
LANSCE User Program Coordinator
Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE)
Mail Stop H831
Los Alamos, NM  87545  USA
505-665-1010(p) 505-665-8604(f)
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