POLAR-2 biweekly meeting

Monday 23 Mar 2020, 10:30 → 12:15 Europe/Zurich

Agenda:

- Going over action item list

- Summary of first joined meeting with CSU

- Discussion on how to shift focus given the current situation

action_items.pdf

Minutes 23-03-2020

Attendance:
NCBJ: Agnieszka, Adam, Dominik
Geneva: Xin, Nicolas, Nicolas, Johan, Jerome, Merlin
IHEP: Jianchao
MPE: J. Michael, Jochen

Action item list:

- WP0 (management):
    - Discussion with ESA took place 1.5 weeks ago on funding from Swiss side. Final documentation for ESA approval has been submitted since then.
    - ESA wants us to hire an external consultancy company to review the full component list
    - Bad news about that is that it is a lot of paperwork + costs involved. Good news is that they should be able to figure out if for example the IGLOO FPGA can be used.
    - We will submit 2 lists, one with all urgent components (FEE FPGA, BEE FPGA etc.) and one with those which are easy to replace if there are issues (screws glue etc.)
    - We can add some of the components from Poland in the urgent list
    - Discussion with CSU took place last monday, made progress on the size of POLAR-2, Franck will send them some 3d models for them to evaluate.
    - They will also provide thermal models
    - More regular meetings (through zoom) will take place with them, about once per month. We will make an agenda in advance and will notify those required for the meeting before (these meetings take long with lots of internal discussions in Chinese so not interesting for everyone).

- WP1 (Detector Modules):
    - Working from home situation makes working on this tricky, however, we already made good progress before
    - Remaining issue is the damper, Merlin will contact CSU to ask for vibration requirements so we can evaluate the damper design.
    - Nicolas dA will contact Franck to discus the wrapping of scintillators (not possible to wrap inside of the plastic grid)
    - Possibilities are coating the scintillator at the top and bottom, or coating the grid
    - To be fixed with simulations, Merlin will give Nicolas access to optical sims so he can work on this and finalize the design together with Franck
    
- WP2 (FEE):
    - GoWIN radiation tests could have started last week, but now need to be post-poned. Johan has finalized the simulations showing that with the source we have in Geneva we can have a ~1 to 1 simulation of the radiation in space. Next step for simulations is to simulate the radiation we actually expect in space using the full polar-2 geometry.
    - Jerome finished the GoWIN irradiation test setup but this sadly cannot be used now
    - Jerome will contact Yannick to discus about the nano-explore FPGA, can we use it for the front-end as an alternative?
    - Dominik mentions that the medium size FPGA is not yet available as only the first batch is in production
    - Yannick uses nano-explore for HERD already, Jerome will check which one
    - VHDL development for the front-end could start, not ideal since we don't know which FPGA will be used yet, however tests could start on the baby-mind (Jerome can order required connectors to work on that from home if needed).
    - Jerome will discus with Nicolas dA and Yannick about issues of Citiroc to send a report to Weeroc soon.
    - Jerome will help Merlin with ordering new SiPMs through cern
    
- WP3 (BEE):
    - Dominik is in contact with nano-exlore people to test software and requirements
    - Dominik, Merlin and Nicolas P. will meet on wednesday at 10:30 to discus the communication and future planning with CSU (and external company)
    - Dominik will add some components to the list from Switzerland to be discussed with the export consultant
    
- WP4 (LVPS):
    - Dominik updated that 2 weeks ago! Merlin didn't check.... will do that.
        
- WP5 (mechanics):
    - Franck is working on the final designs to be discussed with CSU, things look more positive now
    - Main restriction comes from "platform people" who will need to discus with CSU
    - Details can be find in the minutes from last weeks meeting with CSU on svn.
    
- WP8 (POSS)
    - Nicolas has been talking to a company suggested by CSU, they can provide the hardware, now waiting for a quote
    - Design should be discussed with Dominik (meeting on wednesday)
    -
    
- WP9 (spectrometer):
    - Jochen has ordered the first scintillators should arrive in 6 weeks
    - Scintillator thickness can be optimized will take a year to develop (by company)
    - Optical simulations with Geneva need to be replanned since the student can no longer visit us here
    - Jianchao has had discussions with GeCAM people, will write a final document on the idea for the GeCAM design
    - Funding from China will be there for general spectrometers for POLAR-2 not necessarly the GeCAM design.
    
- Collaboration meeting can probably not happen, Jochen will check, no rush with this but we can assume it will not happen in May.

- Adam presents his slides on POLAR-2 contributions in GW-era
    - No new EM counter parts measured in O3
    - POLAR-2 can make contributions with precise measurements -> simulations are needed for this which can start when we have the final design
    - discussion on polarization measurements of GRB with GW measurement is interesting (Adam has new info on this). Merlin will send him the paper we started 2 years ago since he might have     the stamina to finish this.