September 25, 1997

Dear Colleagues,

     It has been 6 months since we held the "Workshop on a New
Experiment to Measure the Neutron Electric Dipole Moment."  The
silence actually indicates that we have been moderately busy in
advancing the experiment.  We want to take this opportunity to
bring everyone up to date regarding the state of the project and to
propose an organizational meeting for the collaboration.
     Since the workshop, our experimental efforts at Los Alamos
have been focused by available funding on three goals:
1)  Determining the distribution of 3He in a bath of 0.5-K 4He,
2)  Determining the polarization lifetime of 3He in a test cell,
3)  Evaluating the application of SQUID's to the experiment.
We have built up a simple device for measuring dilute 3He in
gaseous 4He and observed the predictable uniform distribution
with a collimated, cold neutron beam.  We have shown that the
technique will work to very dilute solutions and observed
1.5 photoelectrons per phototube in that geometry.  We have
also performed a Monte-Carlo simulation to demonstrate a factor
of two improvement in the UCN density if the cell is surrounted
by a reflector.
     Currently, we are trying to move toward cryogenic apparatuses.
A laboratory is being outfitted with equipment.  The first goals
are to operate our dilution refrigerator and to design a test cell.
In parallel, a test cryostat and associated hardware are under
construction to measure the base noise level in a SQUID with a
superconducting pickup loop attached.
     A critical step toward a real experiment is getting Los Alamos
National Laboratory to back us.  The neutron beams from the
spallation source are produced by LANSCE Division.  Recently, its
director, John Browne, called for a review of all fundamental
neutron experiments.  He is hoping the results of the review will be
a very strong endorsement of the projects, allowing him to easily
justify using some of his resources, e.g. beam lines, toward these
experiments.
     For the review, we are preparing a letter-of-intent to perform
the EDM measurement.  The first draft is being sent to you as
postscript files along with this note.  The deadline for final
submission is September 30.  If you have comments before September
29, we would be happy to take them into consideration.  Our appologies
for the short notice, but as you can see, we are on a tight schedule.
     We plan to submit the written document with only two names,
Martin Cooper and Steve Lamoreaux, as contacts.  At the review to
be held on November 20-21, we hope to lay out more information on
the collaboration.  There are several more Los Alamos staff working
on the project.  As a result of the workshop, we have received
a very positive letter from Mike Pendlebury at Sussex.  John Doyle of
Harvard and Bob Golub the HMI are already working on issues relating
to the full EDM experiment.  If the workshop or the letter of intent
is sufficient for groups to commit to the collaboration, we would be
happy to announce all members at the time of the review.
     In order to inaugurate the collaboration, we would like to hold
an organizational meeting in Los Alamos.  If the week before the review,
e.g. November 18-19, were chosen, a great deal more could be said
about the collaboration at the review.  If you would like to attend,
please send us dates when you could not come, and we will try to select
dates that minimize conflicts even if they are not those above.  As this
meeting will likely set the tone for the collaboration, it is
important, but attendence is not mandatory for joining the experiment
either before or after it occurs.  Of course, we hope you will decide
favorably at some time.
     A more detailed agenda will be prepared, but possible topics for
discussion are listed below.  Feel free to suggest other subjects.
This meeting will not be a conference, but a working group to hammer
out plans for the future.
A)  Conceptual design of the experiment
    1)  The components of the experiment
        a)  The cold neutron guide
        b)  The 4He cryogenics
        c)  The measuring cell
        d)  Light transmission out of the cell
        e)  Magnetic shields (penitrations)
        f)  Uniform magnetic field
        g)  RF magnetic field
        h)  3He polarization and transport system
        i)  3He-4He purification and handling system
    2)  Team to make a preliminary engineering layout
B)  The proposal
    1)  Its contents
    2)  For whom is it being prepared?
C)  Definition of the experimental development plan
    1)  Issues need experimental work
    2)  Issues that need calculations
    3)  Issues that need Monte-Carlo simulation
    4)  Who wants to work on what?
D)  The schedule
    1)  What are the constraints?
    2)  What is reasonable?
E)  Costs
    1)  A first guess
    2)  Method of estimating the costs
    3)  Coordination of costing
F)  Funding
    1)  What are the potential sources?
    2)  Yearly profile
G)  Collaboration organization
    1)  What is needed for this size project?
        a)  Scientific council?
        b)  Construction council?
        c)  Project manager?
    2)  Memoranda of understanding?
    3)  Selection of spokespersons for some period
    4)  Collaboration meetings: frequency and location
    5)  Manpower availability of each group over time

Warm regards,

Martin Cooper		mcooper@lanl.gov
Geoff Greene		glg@lanl.gov
Steve Lamoreaux		lamore@lanl.gov