U.S. LHC Accelerator Research Program

LHC Commissioning Task Force Report

July 2005

# Contents 

1.  Introduction 1

    A.  Resources missing for the LHC commissioning 1

    B.  LHC commissioning organization within LARP 2

    C.  Benefits to the U.S. 4

2.  Findings 5

> A. Possibilities at FNAL 5
>
> B. Possibilities at BNL 7
>
> C. Possibilities at LBNL 7
>
> D. Possibilities at SLAC 8
>
> E. Toohig fellowships 9
>
> F. Funding U.S. participation in LHC commissioning 10
>
> G. Schedules 10
>
> H. Traveling and living-abroad issues 10
>
> 3\. Recommendations 11

Appendices 13

A.  CTF organization and charge letter 13

B.  LARP organization chart 15

C.  Memo on long-term assignments to CERN (B. Jurkiw) 16

D.  CMS compensation and relocation guidelines 18

E.  Long-term assignments of green card holders (B. Jurkiw) 19

F.  CERN Director-General letter and DOE response 20

# 1. Introduction

This document summarizes work performed by the U.S. LARP (LHC
Accelerator Research Program) Commissioning Task Force (CTF). The CTF
was initiated by the LARP Program Leader, Dr. S. Peggs, in his letter of
February 16, 2005 (see Appendix A), which presents the charge and
membership of the task force. Release of this report is a response to
the charge. This document is not meant to be an exhaustive plan for the
LHC commissioning organization that addresses all possible details.
Rather, it discusses general considerations, ideas, issues and
guidelines reflecting the position of the U.S. HEP accelerator
community.

Members of the CTF are from major U.S. national laboratories
participating in LARP: FNAL (M. Lamm, V. Shiltsev), BNL (G. Ganetis, W.
Fischer), LBNL (A. McInturff, M. Zisman), and SLAC (T. Raubenheimer).
They have approached middle and top management of their respective
Accelerator and Engineering/Magnet Divisions/Departments and presented
and discussed LHC commissioning goals, procedures and needs. Input came
both from the management and from CTF members. All issues were discussed
during regular CTF video conferences, LARP collaboration meetings, and
several in-person meetings at other conferences. This report contains
general conclusions and recommendations that represent the consensus of
the CTF members.

## A. Resources Missing

The LHC commissioning task consists of two parts, a **hardware
commissioning** (HC) task, which starts after component installation,
followed by a **beam commissioning** (BC) task, which aims at gradually
bringing the machine to its design parameters.

Hardware commissioning is scheduled to begin during calendar year 2005,
with a goal of providing circulating beam in the second half of 2007.
The allocated duration for this hardware commissioning is very short and
involves several time- and resource-linked activities. Thus, detailed
planning and coordination are essential.

The hardware commissioning planning and coordination have been organized
through CERN's Hardware Commissioning working group (HCWG), which is
chaired by Roberto Saban, and includes members from the CERN AB, AT, and
TS groups involved in LHC operation and commissioning. The HCWG has
produced a comprehensive plan for the execution of this task. The
commissioning is divided into numerous subtasks, each of which is the
responsibility of a specialized commissioning team. The procedures for
each subtask are spelled out in LHC project documents. Required time,
personnel resources, and subtask interdependencies have been studied and
discussed in various reports and presentations summarized below.

As explained in the November, 2004 "Resources for Hardware
Commissioning" document, and Roberto Saban's Chamonix XIV presentation,
commissioning is organized around even-number IPs (for example sectors
7--8 and 8--1 surrounding IP8 are the first commissioning areas). The
possibility to start a staggered second "even-IP front" exists, as long
as work by a particular team is not required to happen in parallel in
two even IPs. This November document was written in a general way so
that it could be adapted to various installation and HC scenarios. Each
scenario has different personnel resource requirements. For example,
completing the HC task in 20 months requires 143 persons, of which 46
are missing from the present CERN staff.

Since the November 2004 report, the plan to start with the commissioning
at IP8 has been refined. The new plan calls for an initial commissioning
of the long straight section LSS8, including the inner triplet, followed
by a 3-month shutdown, followed by a 14-month period to commission the
entire LHC. Compressing the schedule to this extent, while maintaining
the constraint of powering only two parallel fronts at a time (two
shifts per day, 5 days per week) has been deemed possible. Although some
commissioning teams have sufficient personnel resources to accommodate
this compressed schedule, others will need to provide additional
commissioning teams. Thus, the revised plan requires an additional 41.5
people (beyond the 46 mentioned above).

Of the additional 87.5 people required to accommodate a compressed
14-month commissioning period, approximately half of them are at the
level of engineer or physicist. A detailed description of the task is
outlined in the references below. The following technical expertise is
needed:

-   cryogenic instrumentation/process control

-   quench protection

-   machine interlocks

-   electrical engineering for power converters

-   commissioning coordination

-   accelerator instrumentation controls

*References:*

Management Report on Resources for Hardware Commissioning, LHC Project
Document LHC-PM-MR-0002 rev 1.0

"Hardware Commissioning: The resources, the programme for 2005," Roberto
Saban, Chamonix XIV 050119

"Resources for Hardware Commissioning for LHC in 14 months," Sergio
Pasinelli, Hardware Commissioning Working Group Minutes, March 17, 2005

## B. Organization of Commissioning within LARP

The U.S. LHC Accelerator Research Program enables U.S. accelerator
specialists to take an active and important role in the LHC accelerator
during its commissioning and operations phases, and to be a major
collaborator in LHC performance upgrades. In particular, LARP will
support U.S. institutions in LHC commissioning activities and
accelerator science, in accelerator instrumentation and diagnostics, and
in superconducting magnet R&D. The goals of the LARP commissioning
effort are:

-   to help bring the LHC up to its design luminosity quickly

-   to help establish robust operation

-   to improve and upgrade LHC performance

To reach these goals, the work LARP does must be at the technological
frontier, and will thereby improve the capabilities of the U.S.
accelerator community in accelerator science and technology to more
effectively operate our domestic accelerators, and to position us to be
able to lead in the development of the next generation of high-energy
colliders.

Overall LARP goals are to:

-   Advance international cooperation in high-energy accelerators

-   Advance high-energy physics by bringing the LHC on, and up to its
    design performance, quickly; by improving LHC performance through
    advances in accelerator understanding and instrumentation; by using
    the LHC as a tool to gain deeper knowledge of accelerator science
    and technology; and by extending the LHC as a frontier HEP
    instrument with a timely luminosity upgrade.

-   Advance U.S. accelerator science and technology by keeping our
    skills sharp while helping to commission the LHC; by conducting
    forefront accelerator physics R&D; by advancing U.S. capabilities to
    improve the performance of our own machines; by preparing U.S.
    scientists to design next-generation colliders; and by developing
    technologies necessary for next-generation collider construction

LARP is the umbrella organization for U.S. HEP involvement in the LHC
commissioning. It is properly funded, has an established organizational
structure, and has already earned a reputation among CERN and U.S.
laboratory managements.

The present LARP Organization chart is shown in Appendix B.
Commissioning is currently part of the "Accelerator Physics and
Commissioning" led by M. Syphers. There are several commissioning
coordinators assigned (E. Harms, FNAL; A. Drees, BNL). Most of the
recent activities of the Accelerator Physics and Commissioning group
have concentrated on understanding schedules for the LHC commissioning,
identification of key people on both sides, and preliminary recruitment
of U.S. personnel.

There are several components of LARP commissioning. The **Hardware
Commissioning (HC)** task consists of :

*Interaction Region Commissioning***:** As presently conceived, this
relatively modest and well defined Task refers to non-beam commissioning
of hardware built in the U.S.-LHC Construction Program, such as
interaction region magnets, and feed boxes.

*Hardware Commissioning***:** Strong verbal support has been expressed
by the DOE and U.S. lab directorates for additional hardware
commissioning assistance to CERN, and for the idea that LARP is a
natural vehicle through which this activity could be organized. Any
additional hardware commissioning scope inside LARP would go beyond
"following through on U.S.-built deliverables," to participation, mainly
by engineers, with more general commissioning. Effort required for this
new activity is not included in the current LARP funding envelope.

The **Beam Commissioning (BC)** task consists of :

*Commissioning of LARP Deliverables***:** This includes the
commissioning and exploitation of beam instrumentation developed with
LARP funds, such as luminometers, tune feedback, and phase 2
collimators. Detailed planning has not yet been carried out---in part
because of uncertainties with the LHC schedule---but is becoming urgent.

*Generic Beam Commissioning***:** This includes participation in beam
startup, various beam studies, and exploitation of beam instrumentation
other than that developed with LARP funds. Some 30 topics for possible
U.S. contributions were listed by CERN Beam Commissioning leaders and
presented at the LARP collaboration meetings in 2005.

At present (July 2005), some components (*Commissioning of Deliverables*
and *Interaction Region Commissioning*) are relatively well established,
and are included in the present LARP scope and budget. *Generic Beam
Commissioning* is taking shape now and not planned in detail yet. The
*Hardware Commissioning* is not yet well defined, nor, as noted already,
is it currently within the LARP program.

## C. Benefits to the U.S. HEP program

In justifying the LARP commissioning effort in support of the LHC
project, it is appropriate to consider its benefits to the U.S.
accelerator physics program. Clearly, there is an overall benefit to the
U.S. high-energy physics program if the LHC turns on rapidly and
successfully. Our experimental physics groups have invested heavily in
the LHC project, and the science produced there thus represents a return
on the U.S. investment. Moreover, a healthy and strong HEP activity at
LHC will surely be necessary to secure future accelerator-based HEP
projects in the U.S. Thus, contributing to a prompt and successful
turn-on of LHC is clearly in the interests of the U.S. accelerator
community and justifies involvement in the effort.

An obvious initial benefit of rapidly commissioning the LHC is that the
information gained will be available in a timely manner and thus have
maximum positive effect on U.S. plans for LHC upgrades. A specific
example of the longer-range benefits of U.S. involvement in LHC
commissioning can be found in the large 2 K cryogenics system. The
International Linear Collider---potentially the next large accelerator
project---will require an equivalent cryogenics system. The experience
gained at LHC will give U.S. staff invaluable experience in the design,
fabrication, and operation of such a system for ILC.

To take full advantage of such potential future opportunities, however,
it is critical that U.S. accelerator physicists and engineers make use
of this relatively rare opportunity to train younger staff members on a
real---and very technically challenging---machine. This implies that we
plan on "pairing" our experienced senior personnel with junior
scientists who can be trained during the commissioning process. Proper
placement within CERN groups and pairing our junior people with
experienced CERN scientists should be beneficial as well. Such an
approach will give lasting benefits to the U.S. accelerator physics and
engineering communities by enhancing our pool of trained staff. If we do
not take this approach, the benefits of our commissioning activity would
be greatly diminished. Therefore, in this plan we assume that our effort
will -- when possible - include pairs of people, with the junior people
likely being the longer-term visitors to CERN and the senior members
making repeated, but shorter duration, visits.

# 

# 2. Findings

## Possibilities at FNAL

At Fermilab, people with the skills needed for LHC commissioning reside
in the Accelerator Division (AD) and Technical Division (TD). Active
participation in the design, development, and construction of LHC IR
accelerator components puts Fermilab in a good position to support the
commissioning of the LHC.

Fermilab's AD plans for FY06--10 include support for the Tevatron Run II
operation until 2009, support for the neutrino program (NuMI and
MiniBOONE experiments), construction of the Superconducting Module Test
Facility (SMTF), and R&D on the Proton Driver and International Linear
Collider. These projects will need all the engineering resources
available, and most of the physicists. Nevertheless, there is strong
interest in participation in LHC commissioning at all levels: scientists
and engineers consider it as a natural application of the skills and
expertise gained at the Tevatron during the Run II preparation, startup
and luminosity upgrade. The LARP program has been widely advertised
within the AD by several enthusiasts, including John Marriner, Mike
Syphers, and Elvin Harms. Several AD people are already involved in LARP
activities. AD physicists---led by N. Mokhov and T. Sen---worked closely
with the magnet builders and cryogenic engineers to understand the
effect of the expected radiation loads on the inner triplet components.
These studies estimated the radiation damage to magnet components as
well as the expected heat loads on the cryogenic system. As a result of
these studies, cooling channels were introduced in the magnet designs,
and absorbers were placed strategically into the IR layout. Studies
performed on the alignment of the inner triplet components were
instrumental in defining their required mechanical alignment tolerances.
A group led by R. Pasquinelli has proposed use of 4.5-GHz Schottky
detectors as non-destructive LHC tune and chromaticity diagnostics. C.
Y. Tan is collaborating with P. Cameron of BNL on development of the LHC
phase-locked loop tune meter, developing including tests at the
Tevatron. Several Tevatron operational experts and scientists
participated in reviews of the LHC subsystems, including machine
interlocks, collimation system, and the reference magnet system.

Many FNAL AD people ideally fit the LHC BC requirements and show great
interest in visiting CERN for that purpose. The estimated total number
of people interested and available for long-term visits (½--1 year) for
Beam Commissioning ranges from 5--12. Indeed, more than 12 people would
be interested in participating in BC activities via short (few week to
few month) visits.

As for Hardware Commissioning, AD engineers are in high demand for
FNAL's own programs (Run II, ILC, and Proton Driver). Nevertheless,
there are two candidates for long-term visits to CERN: one is a computer
specialist from the AD/Controls Department, and the other an engineer
from the AD/Cryogenics Department.

The Technical Division (TD) at Fermilab, through its history of design,
construction, and testing of superconducting magnets, is in a good
position to support the LHC Hardware commissioning. It is uniquely
qualified to support the IR commissioning of U.S. deliverables through
its contributions to the U.S. LHC accelerator project. Fermilab, with
help from LBNL, designed the Q2 element cross section, and was
responsible for the construction and testing of all Q2 elements.
Fermilab was responsible for the design of the Inner Triplet cryogenic
system as well as the bus work and instrumentation wiring. The Q1/Q3
elements from Japan (KEK/Toshiba), as well as the Fermilab Q2, were
packaged into Fermilab-designed cryostats.

Most of the proposed TD Hardware Commissioning is supported through the
LARP IR Hardware commissioning task. Here, participation will be
supported by a combination of short term (2--3 week) and longer term
(6--12 month) commissioners. In one case (Peter Limon), the support for
a longer term commissioner has been accomplished outside of the IR
commissioning task.

For the longer term IR commissioners, there are four candidates in the
TD: Sandor Feher, Roger Rabehl, Mike Tartaglia and Peter Limon. Each
person has a unique set of experiences with the commissioning of the
Tevatron, the commissioning of the Fermilab superfluid test facility, or
the testing of U.S. supplied LHC magnets, which could be of immediate
use to the commissioning of the inner triplets. This expertise is
particularly important in the compressed commissioning schedule, which
does not leave much time for training.

As part of this LARP IR Commissioning task we propose to send Sandor
Feher and Roger Rabehl for one year during FY05. The third person
available for this program is Michael Tartaglia. Our present plan is to
send Tartaglia to CERN later, schedule and funding permitting, perhaps
after Rabehl or Feher have returned. We judged that having three people
missing from our test facility would put a strain on our ability to
carry out our responsibilities to the ILC, Proton Driver and High-Field
magnet projects. The fourth person, Peter Limon, will live at CERN
starting in the fall of 2005. He will be the U.S. point person at CERN
during the fall hardware commissioning period.

There are perhaps 10 other TD people who could, in principle, go to CERN
and who would fit one or more of the CERN profiles for hardware
commissioners. However, of those 10 people, we estimate that only 3 or 4
could actually go due to family constraints.

## B. Possibilities at BNL

Expertise for hardware and beam commissioning reside in the Accelerator
Division of the Collider-Accelerator Department, and the Superconducting
Magnet Division. Brookhaven has designed the nonlinear interaction
region correction scheme for the LHC, built superconducting dipole
magnets for the interaction regions, and collaborates with CERN on a
number of issues including collimation, phase-locked loop tune
measurements, electron cloud issues, and beam-beam issues.
Collaborations based on these topics have already been fruitful to both
CERN and BNL. Angelika Drees coordinates the accelerator physics
activities at BNL, and Peter Cameron works on the phase-locked loop tune
measurement.

There are a number of people at Brookhaven with experience in hardware
and/or beam commissioning at a superconducting machine. However, the
experimental program at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) is an
ongoing effort, and long absences of key personnel during a RHIC run are
likely to have an adverse impact on the program. The RHIC running time
is typically 30 weeks per year, but run times can vary due to changes in
funding. During longer shutdowns it is easier to support activities
other than RHIC if funding is provided for these activities. While 1--2
people may participate in the LHC commissioning under these
circumstances, a final decision can only be made year-by-year, after the
budget and the RHIC operating time are known. If new junior staff can be
hired with LARP funds, it is possible to have those at CERN for longer
time periods. To support research in the areas of interest to both CERN
and BNL, short-term visits will be useful.

## C. Possibilities at LBNL

LBNL staff are already involved in the commissioning of the hardware
provided as part of the LHC construction project. In particular, the
cryogenic feed boxes for the LHC IRs are an LBNL responsibility.
Particular activities needed include fit-up work on the first unit
(already under way), commissioning planning, supervision of the
installation work, and eventually participating in the commissioning of
the hardware with beam. This primarily engineering task will be handled
by Joseph Rasson and Jon Zbasnik, with the aid of a junior engineer yet
to be identified. One possibility being explored is to take advantage of
the intern program of the LBNL Engineering Division to provide a
suitable junior engineer.

A second LBNL activity will be to commission the instrumentation
provided as part of the LARP program, such as the bunch-by-bunch
luminosity monitor. The present vision is to make the hardware
functional during FY06, make the device operational with initial beam in
FY07, and participate in luminosity improvements in FY08 and possibly
beyond. This activity will include a mixture of physicist(s) and
engineer(s), who will make multiple short trips, along with a
post-doctoral physicist resident at CERN.

The third activity will be to participate in general commissioning
activities, particularly focusing on electron-cloud studies, beam-beam
effects, and instabilities. Miguel Furman will be the senior person in
this endeavor, augmented by a resident post-doctoral physicist at CERN.
A number of senior physicists have expressed interest in participating
in this activity at some level, including John Byrd, Stefano De Santis,
John Corlett, Mike Zisman, and possibly Sasha Zholents. It is likely
that most of these people would opt for short-term visits due to
personal and professional constraints. Several others have expressed an
interest in longer-term visits to CERN for this purpose, including
Christoph Steier and Ina Reichel.

Zisman, Zholents, Byrd, Steier, and Reichel have had considerable
experience at machine commissioning at PEP-II.

## D. Possibilities at SLAC

SLAC is committed to participating in the beam tests of the prototype
phase II secondary collimator it will provide to CERN by early 2008.
Additionally, we assume that SLAC staff will participate in any Phase I
commissioning of the collimator system. Regardless of the technology
choice of the Phase II collimator that is eventually installed, that
proposed by SLAC or some other, SLAC plans to participate in the final
collimator commissioning. Participants among the SLAC senior staff will
likely include Tor Raubenheimer, Tom Markiewicz and Andrei Seryi. A
still-to-be-hired postdoc should also be available for extended
commissioning shifts.

Mauro Pivi of SLAC participated in e-cloud studies in 2004. It is
anticipated that this effort will continue as need requires. Further
participation in general beam commissioning activities is less well
defined. Nonetheless, it is anticipated that SLAC will contribute to the
commissioning effort at the level of 1-2 FTEs per year; topics of
particular interest include collective effects, non-linear dynamics and
beam instrumentation.

## Summary: 

+----------+----------+----------+--------+---------+---------------+
| Lab      | HC       |          | BC     |         | BC            |
|          |          |          |        |         |               |
|          | L        |          | Lon    |         | Short-term    |
|          | ong-term |          | g-term |         | visitors      |
|          | FTEs     |          | FTEs   |         |               |
+----------+----------+----------+--------+---------+---------------+
|          | min      | max      | min    | max     |               |
+----------+----------+----------+--------+---------+---------------+
| FNAL     | 4        | 7.5      | 5      | 12      | 12            |
+----------+----------+----------+--------+---------+---------------+
| BNL      | 0        | 0        | 0      | 1^a)^   | 10            |
+----------+----------+----------+--------+---------+---------------+
| LBNL     | 1+1^a)^  | 2+2^a)^  | 2^a)^  | 2+2^a)^ | 8             |
+----------+----------+----------+--------+---------+---------------+
| SLAC     | 0        | 0        | 1      | 2       | 2             |
+----------+----------+----------+--------+---------+---------------+
| Total    | 6        | 11.5     | 8      | 19      | 22            |
+----------+----------+----------+--------+---------+---------------+

^a)^Junior engineer or post-doc, to be hired with LARP funds

## E. Toohig Fellowships

Toohig Fellowship program should provide an excellent opportunity to
recruit young physicists and engineers for LHC commissioning. The
Fellowship is named in honor of the late Dr. Timothy Toohig, a physicist
and Jesuit priest, who devoted his life to promoting accelerator science
and increasing understanding, communication and collaboration among
scientists of all nations and religions. The Fellows are expected to
study and improve the operation of the LHC by helping with commissioning
activities, by actively participating in accelerator research on the
collider, and by pursuing R&D on instruments, magnets, and other
equipment to facilitate a luminosity upgrade. LARP has recently
announced postdoctoral research positions in accelerator science for
recent PhDs in physics or engineering. These positions are explicitly
for studies and activities concerning CERN's Large Hadron Collider. The
term of the Fellowship is two years extendable to three, approximately
half of which will be spent at CERN and the remainder at a U.S. DOE
laboratory involved in the LARP collaboration. The choice of resident
laboratory for each Fellow will be negotiated, and will depend on each
individual's chosen and approved research interest. The present
activities of LARP include accelerator instrumentation and diagnostics,
advanced superconducting magnet R&D, and beam physics calculations and
simulations. Together with LARP scientists, engineers and postdocs,
Toohig Fellows will participate in the equipment and beam commissioning
of the LHC as well as in the present activities of LARP, which include
accelerator instrumentation and diagnostics, advanced superconducting
magnet R&D, and beam physics calculations and simulations.

A selection committee has been formed, chaired by Dr. P. Limon of FNAL.
A web site
http://[www.toohigfellowship.org](http://www.toohigfellowship.org/) has
been launched, and a poster was created and distributed at PAC2005
(Knoxville, TN), at the 2005 U.S. Particle Accelerator School (Cornell),
and among major U.S. accelerator laboratories. Several candidates have
sent in their applications already. It is anticipated that the first
candidate(s) will be selected by the end of CY2005. Subsequently, one or
two candidates will be selected each year for several years ahead.

## F. Funding U.S. Participation in LHC Commissioning

There are three sources of funds for participation of U.S. scientists
and engineers in LHC commissioning. LARP has funds available for about 7
FTEs of long-term visits for each year of the LHC beam commissioning.
LARP also can support several (maximum 4--6) Toohig Fellowships.
Short-term visits to participate in beam commissioning can also be
partially supported by LARP, though the scale and conditions of such
support are not determined yet. CERN is willing to give the status of
"Project Associate" to all participants in the hardware commissioning
effort. Besides the local benefits of staying in the Geneva area, such a
status assumes a financial support of 5000CHF per month for people with
families and 4000CHF per month for those without families. Possibilities
to get additional support for the HC from U.S. Laboratories or from U.S.
DOE directly are currently being explored.

## G. Schedules

LHC HC will start at the last quarter of CY2005 and will end sometime in
the summer of 2007. Beam commissioning stages will tentatively start as
follows:

-   Pre-beam: Spring-Summer 2007

-   Beam start-up: Fall 2007 -- Spring 2008

-   Luminosity commissioning: Spring -- Fall 2008

-   High-luminosity regime: after Fall 2008

Recent schedules of the LHC hardware installation and commissioning can
be found at <http://indico.cern.ch/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=a053>;
beam commissioning schedules are presented in detail at
<http://indico.cern.ch/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=044>.

## H. Traveling and Living-Abroad Issues

Issues of living abroad were addressed in detail by the CMS
collaboration in the "Guidelines for Compensation of U.S. LHC Personnel
Working at CERN" (Jan 2004) for the similar purpose of long- and
short-term visits to CERN for detector commissioning and operation. The
considerations relevant to U.S. lab employees are fully applicable to
LARP scientists and engineers who will take part in LHC commissioning.
An overarching principle is that one should not suffer economic hardship
as a consequence of being stationed at CERN, nor should one reap a
financial bounty. The basic idea is that reasonable costs should be
compensated, and that doing physics research at the LHC should be
roughly cost-neutral for the researchers. It was noted that the cost of
living is higher in the Geneva area than in the U.S. and, at present
exchange rates, a positive differential of about 20% is appropriate.

There are different concerns or issues related to relocation that depend
on the length of the visit. Compensation for costs incurred during a
brief visit is covered by established travel policy at most U.S.
institutions. Long-term (\> 1 year) assignment issues include base
salary level, housing, transportation, food, medical and disability
insurance, and other benefits such as retirement contribution and costs
of schooling for an employee's children. Tax issues can also strongly
affect an individual's disposable income. General issues of living
abroad are summarized in Appendix C. A relocation benefits guide for
each category of employee is given in Appendix D. The base salary of an
employee on long-term assignment may or may not reflect a cost-of-living
differential. If it does not, the employee may receive a cost-of-living
allowance (COLA) to compensate for both fluctuation in the exchange rate
and differences in the actual cost of living. If an employee's base
salary includes a cost-of-living differential, the COLA would protect
only against fluctuations in the exchange rate. Different institutions
use different means of calculating the COLA. An illustrative numerical
example (see Appendix D) is that adopted at Fermilab, where COLA applies
to 100% of take-home pay (excluding fringe benefits), and is activated
when the exchange rate falls below 1.4 CHF per USD.

Another issue associated with long-term visits of U.S. LARP experts to
CERN relates to the fact that many accelerator physicists potentially
available for the LHC commissioning are not U.S. citizens and usually
either are permanent-resident aliens ("green card" holders) or are in
the U.S. on various types of visas. The issue is considered in some
detail in the memorandum from Fermilab's Human Resources Department (see
Appendix E). In brief, staying longer than 1 year at CERN should not
pose problems for "green card" holders, although proper paperwork
exchange with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Department
must be done by the corresponding U.S. home lab officials prior to the
visit.

Finally, we note that short-term LHC commissioning visits to CERN would
not be very effective if foreign travel permission from the U.S. DOE is
not given promptly. Currently, the foreign travel approval process at
Fermilab takes as much as 45--60 days after application. Upon
consultation with Fermilab's Associate Director for Administration,
Bruce L. Chrisman, it was revealed that application processing on-site
takes most of the time, while the approval process at the DOE itself
takes only 3--4 working days. By CY2007, there is a plan to reduce local
processing time at Fermilab to some 7 days, which should make the
approval process more acceptable. Approval of similar follow-up visits
of the same person for the same purpose should take even less time.
Approval times at the other LARP collaborating institutions are already
reasonably short, and should provide no impediment to LHC commissioning
activities.

# 3. Recommendations

1.  We endorse the idea that LARP be used for organization of the U.S.
    involvement in LHC commissioning. For that purpose, we recommend
    forming a Machine Commissioning Project (MCP) within LARP.

-   The goal of the MCP will be to plan and organize participation in
    LHC commissioning, including arrangements for long-term and
    short-term visits

-   The MCP should include both hardware commissioning (if the funding
    issues are resolved) and beam commissioning

-   The MCP leader(s) should be charged with approaching individuals in
    the U.S. labs. Members of the Commissioning Task Force at the
    corresponding institutions could provide assistance if needed.

2.  U.S. participation in LHC hardware installation and commissioning is
    desirable: CERN and the U.S. share common goals for hardware
    commissioning. It is in everyone's best interest to bring the LHC to
    a full operating state as quickly as possible in order to maximize
    its physics potential and provide feedback to the accelerator and
    magnet communities for upgrades at the LHC and elsewhere.

-   A formal request letter from the CERN Director-General has recently
    been received by the U.S. DOE and all four U.S. National
    Laboratories involved in LARP. This letter, along with a response
    from DOE, can be found in Appendix F.

-   Funding and scheduling HC activities must be addressed as soon as
    possible. Possibilities of supplemental funds from LARP, from DOE,
    and from CERN should be explored as well.

-   There is a certain urgency to organize the HC in such a way that
    U.S. experts will become available for the LHC commissioning in the
    first half of FY'06

3.  Involvement of junior staff in the LHC commissioning should be one
    of the priorities of the LARP MCP. Providing training of junior
    staff will give lasting benefit to the U.S. National Laboratories.
    In principle, this applies equally to both the HC and BC tasks.
    Thus, while there are definite possibilities for doing this during
    Beam Commissioning, we should strive to make it apply equally to the
    HC task.

-   We recommend "pairing" with more experienced people. This will
    require LARP support of short-term visits of experienced researchers
    to CERN in order to collaborate/supervise younger staff effectively

-   We believe that Remote Access Rooms in the U.S. will be useful to
    ensure more frequent and closer contact between junior staff and
    their more experienced colleagues/supervisors in the U.S.

-   We strongly support the idea of Toohig fellowships. To become
    effective, the program should be launched in 2005. We note that some
    issues have yet to be addressed, e.g., special care should be taken
    to ensure that the process is impartial in terms of Laboratory
    affiliation.

4.  Several issues should be further explored by the LARP MCP leaders,
    including:

-   how to combine commissioning of LARP deliverables with participation
    in "generic" beam commissioning

-   balance between short- and long-term visits

-   possibilities to get U.S. universities involved

# Appendices

Appendix A: CTF Organization and Charge Letter

![](media/image1.wmf){width="6.398611111111111in"
height="7.863194444444445in"}

![](media/image2.wmf){width="6.414583333333334in" height="7.5375in"}

Appendix B: LARP Organization Chart as of July 2005

![](media/image3.png){width="7.513194444444444in"
height="5.177083333333333in"}

Appendix C: Memo on Long-Term Assignments to CERN (B. Jurkiw)

![](media/image4.wmf){width="5.725694444444445in"
height="7.995833333333334in"}

![](media/image5.wmf){width="5.429861111111111in"
height="8.025694444444444in"}

Appendix D: CMS Compensation and Relocation Guidelines (January 2004)

![](media/image6.wmf){width="7.040277777777778in"
height="4.991666666666666in"} The amount of the U.S. CMS Project COLA is
calculated based on a supported CHF-USD exchange rate of 1.4 CHF per
USD, a cost of living differential of 20% at the supported exchange
rate, and a supported salary fraction of *f* = 0.9235 (because Social
Security is taken out of one\'s salary first):

COLA = *Sf*(1.41.2--*R*~ave~)

where *S* = base salary. The average CHF-USD exchange rate, *R*~ave~, is
obtained from <http://www.x-rates.com/d/CHF/USD/hist2005.html>. (For
foreign nationals who do not pay Social Security, the supported salary
fraction would be *f* = 1.) The Fermilab benefits office is also paying
918CHF per month for Fermilab staff people to be part of the CERN Health
Insurance Scheme run by UNIQA, as U.S. HMOs don\'t provide coverage over
there.

As an example, taking *R*~ave~ = 1.266 for June 2005 from the web page
and *S* = \$100,000 base salary:

COLA = \$100,0000.9235(1.41.2--1.266) = CHF38,233 additional money.

Appendix E: Memo on Green Card holders (B. Jurkiw)

![](media/image7.wmf){width="6.111805555555556in"
height="8.052777777777777in"}

Appendix F: CERN DG Letter and DOE Response

![](media/image8.wmf){width="6.475in" height="8.400694444444444in"}

![](media/image9.wmf){width="6.752777777777778in"
height="10.735416666666667in"}