[Cuga] PAC 53 Call for proposals- A message from Doug Higinbotham

[Lorelei Carlson]

PAC53, the 53th Jefferson Lab Program Advisory Committee meeting, will be held 21-25 July 2025.   The committee will judge the technical and scientific aspects of submitted proposals and review jeopardy proposals in order to provide recommendations to Laboratory management. New proposals will be recommended for approval if they represent high quality physics in support of the scientific mission of the lab. The deadline for submission of proposals and updates is 9:00 a.m. EDT (Eastern Daylight Time) on Wednesday, May 5th, 2024.

Proposals and updates for PAC53 should be submitted electronically using the instructions at http://www.jlab.org/exp_prog/PACpage/instructions.html



This year we have created a LaTeX template/outline to help with the proposal process.   The template works with Overleaf and was created on a MAC with https://www.tug.org/mactex/. Itcan be accessed at: https://github.com/JeffersonLab/PAC-Proposal-Template



We are still requiring what in the past was known as “coversheets” but they have been simplified and are being used to create metadata for each proposal. This means that information about new equipment and potential hazards must be included in the proposal. Details about computing needs and other detailed information that is best determined later in the experimental planning will be captured as part of the ERR process.



All proposals must include an Executive Summary which is no longer than one page that details the following:

  *   Main physics goals (please be specific)
  *   The proposed measurements / observables
  *   Specific requirements on detectors, targets and beams
  *   The number of PAC days being requested



Within the main proposal, the PAC is looking not only for the statistical precision of the experiment, but also good estimates of systematic uncertainties.



All proposals need to include a table of beam energies, currents, and targets that they will be requesting. Other information, such as polarization requests, can be included here as well.



See http://www.jlab.org/exp_prog/PACpage/guidelines.html for more details.



New Proposals

Detailed information on the process for proposal submission is available at http://www.jlab.org/exp_prog/PACpage/guidelines.html. New proposals will be granted a 20 minute presentation in a public session at the PAC meeting. Following the public presentation session the PAC will continue its discussions in closed session, and at least one spokesperson should be available either in person or by phone for 24 hours after the public session to answer questions as the PAC's discussion progresses. Proposals will, if unconditionally approved, be given a scientific rating and a beamtime allocation.

New run group proposals (i.e., those requesting new beamtime) are defined as collections of proposed experiments that use common beam time and experimental equipment. Proposals for completely new run groups should be submitted at one PAC meeting, where all of the anticipated physics associated with the proposed run group will be considered. Each run group can submit up to 4 individual proposals (up to 3 physics topics plus 1 summary of additional topics) and will be granted a maximum of 4 presentations corresponding to these proposals. The PAC may consider each of these for grading, but will attempt to provide a common assessment of the whole run group.



Additions to Previously Approved Run Groups

New experimental proposals that do not require additional beam time or experimental equipment and that can run (even partially) in parallel with previously approved experiments need only be proposed and reviewed internally by the existing, approved collaborations. It is requested for such run group addition proposals that both the proposal and a report from the existing, approved collaboration review be submitted to the PAC. An existing, approved collaboration representative or the relevant Hall Leader will have the opportunity to report briefly on these additional proposals to the PAC, and the PAC may then formalize the collaboration approval and provide comments on the experiments in its report.



Run group additions that require changes to approved experiments, or additional equipment, need to be submitted as full stand-alone proposals even if no additional beam time is requested. Exceptions that require only minor changes or additions to the experimental equipment need to be discussed with the approved experiment and the Associate Director for Experimental Nuclear Physics before submission to the PAC as run group additions.



Conditionally Approved Proposals

The PAC may conditionally approve proposals when additional requirements must be fulfilled before full approval is granted. There are two categories of conditional approval:

  *   C2 - must return to the PAC to address concerns or issues to obtain approval;
  *   C1 - must meet designated technical requirements to obtain approval from laboratory management - a further PAC review is not required.

Newly C2 conditionally approved proposals must return for approval at one of the next 2 consecutive PAC meetings following the PAC at which they received the conditional approval status.

Proposals with previous conditional approval (C2) that wish to be considered for approval at PAC53 should submit an updated proposal and will be granted presentation time at the PAC meeting. Following the public presentation session the PAC will continue its discussions in closed session, and at least one spokesperson should be available either in person or by phone for 24 hours after the public session to answer questions as the PAC's discussion progresses. If approved, the proposals will be considered for rating along with the other approved proposals in the grading session.



Jeopardy

Experiments which have not been reviewed by the PAC for over three years and also are not on the upcoming published Jefferson Lab (near term NPES) schedule can be scheduled for Jeopardy review. To keep the workload of the PAC reasonable and focused, jeopardy reviews for a given year tend to be focused on a particular hall or physics topic. This year’s jeopardy process will focus on experimental Hall D and experiments E12-19-001 (K-Long) and E12-20-011 (GDH sum rule). A jeopardy review may not be used to request beam time beyond the original PAC allocation. If additional time is needed, the collaboration should submit a new proposal.





PAC Results

The results of the PAC's deliberations will become public as follows: the list of scientific ratings and beam time allocations will be provided at the PAC closeout and then posted on the PAC53 website. The final written PAC report will be posted on the PAC53 website and an email will be sent to the user community.





Appendix: Scientific Categories for Nuclear Physics Proposals

  1.  Hadron spectra as probes of QCD
(Baryon and meson spectroscopy)
  2.  Transverse structure of the hadrons
(Elastic and transition Form Factors)
  3.  Longitudinal structure of the hadrons
(Unpolarized and polarized parton distribution functions)
  4.  3D structure of the hadrons
(Generalized Parton Distributions and Transverse Momentum Distributions)
  5.  Hadrons and cold nuclear matter
(Medium modification of the nucleons, quark hadronization, N-N correlations, hypernuclear spectroscopy, few-body experiments)
  6.  Low-energy tests of the Standard Model and Fundamental Symmetries

(Searches for dark matter or physics beyond the standard model, tests of fundamental symmetries)



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