It has been 25+ years of wonderful and full of accomplishments journey as a Fermilab scientist. I have been reflecting on “Major Achievement(s)”. Is it
Design, construction, commissioning of Main Injector and Recycler, or
Convincing Dr. Abdul Kalam, President of India, in my two hours long one on one meeting with him in Spring of 2005, that India should collaborate with the United States, especially Fermilab, in basic high energy physics, neutrino has a lot of mysteries ahead, and high intensity proton accelerator collaboration could have significant benefit for India, or
Systematic development of Fermilab SRF Infrastructure that has made Fermilab a world leader in the field of SRF accelerator technology, or
Finalizing the Project Annex I, an agreement between US-DOE and Indian Department of Atomic Energy for India to make significant in-kind contributions to PIP-II, or
Working 10+ graduate students, scientists and engineers either towards their Ph.D. or developing Fermilab and International High Energy Physics and accelerator programs?
I am honored to have worked with so many scientists and engineers.
Early morning in the winter of 1991, Dr. John People, Director, Fermilab, on the recommendation of Prof. Leon Lederman asked me to join the Main Injector Department. As a young Research Associate at Fermilab in HEP, I vividly remember telling John that I do not know anything about accelerator physics and John telling me you will learn. In summer 1991, I joined the Main Injector Department and started working on the accelerator design and soon I was in the middle of making lattice choices and improvements to the Main Injector design. In order to ensure that these accelerator modeling had any justification, I started a series of studies in the operating Main Ring. Main Ring was a very difficult machine to understand and model. Dr. Helen Edwards and Dr. Don Edwards convinced me that although it is novel idea to understand Main Ring, it is better to model how to fix those issues in the Main Injector as my modeling was reproducing the linear part of the Main Ring but was failing on high order effects. The Main Injector was going to be built with the Main Ring quadrupoles, so essentially we were going to transfer a significant part of none linearity. I implemented a b beat and octupole detuning correction scheme in the Main Injector lattice, which improved the Main Injector dynamic aperture significantly. The design had a considerable emphasis on correction schemes and magnets were placed to cancel imperfections locally. The design and operating dynamic aperture of the Main Injector is so large that today we are running Main Injector with almost twice the design intensity (6e13 proton/pulse) for the neutrino program with only small upgrades to the base lattice.
I was also a member of the Recycler Ring design team. Soon after its construction, we realized that its performance was nowhere close to the design parameters. Since the same tools were used for both the Main Injector and Recycler design we were convinced that fundamentally it was not a design issue, but there were key differences, Recycler having a permanent dipole-quadrupole-sextupole magnet (Combined Function Magnets (CFM)) all in one magnet and no electromagnetic correctors. The measurements were not trusted worthy due to unreliable Beam Position Monitors. After leading very successful commissioning of the Main Injector, which had one of the toughest CD-4 goals in shorter time and under budget, I was asked by the Fermilab management to take over the Recycler Ring upgrade and commissioning in summer of 2000. With a team of scientists and engineers we analyzed every aspect of the machine, found many manufacturing errors, a) quadrupole and sextupole not tuned properly in the CFM, b) heating tape inside the CFM being magnetic, c) vacuum system not being adequate, d) Fringe field of the Main Injector ramp, to name a few. After two years of hardware improvements to the machine during many shutdowns, in the spring of 2003, Recycler Ring achieved its design lifetime before electron cooling.
In Summer of 2003, with the encouragement of Prof. Michael Witherell, Director, Fermilab, I moved from Fermilab Accelerator operation to work on the development of two future accelerators i) e+e– Collider (NLC and TESLA) and ii) High-Intensity Proton Accelerator (Proton Driver, Project-X, PIP-II) at Fermilab. Fermilab worked with both the NLC and TESLA collaboration. But during the International Technology Recommendation Panel, Dr. Bill Forster and I worked with the Fermilab management to suggest that the Superconducting Radio Frequency (SRF) Accelerator technology is a better choice from Fermilab’s perspective. After the SRF technology selection, I became an active member of the Global Design Group and Fermilab focus on developing SRF Infrastructure intensified with a goal of becoming a world leader in this field to enable US to host the ILC. We worked with ANL, Cornell, Jlab, DESY, and KEK in developing Fermilab and US industry for the SRF technology. The US started producing SRF cavities which were meeting 35 MV/m design gradient of ILC. Today we have built an ILC cryomodule that meets the design specification of 31.5 MV/m. Fermilab is playing a lead role in LCLS-II construction. All of these are possible due to the initial steps we took under the scientific leadership of Dr. Helen Edwards in the development of Fermilab as a world leader in SRF accelerator technology. Fermilab was considered as a viable site for hosting the ILC. Due to our site constraints, we looked into the possibilities of containing as much of the machine as possible on Fermilab. I proposed a concept of a circular Damping Ring, which later became the baseline design of ILC
In 2008, the US government pulled its support from the development of the International Linear Collider, Fermilab started its focus on upgrading Fermilab accelerator complex with a High-Intensity Super Conducting Linac. It was clear that US-DOE cannot afford such an accelerator upgrade and a neutrino detector together without significant international contribution. With the encouragement of US-DOE, under the guidance of Dr. Piermaria Oddone, Director, Fermilab and Dr. Anil Kakodkar, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), India, initiated the Indian Institute and Fermilab Collaboration (IIFC) for particle physics and accelerator. The IIFC initiated its work on High-Intensity Superconducting Proton Accelerator and Neutrino experiments under institutions to institutions MOU its addendums (2009). While making progress on all SRF accelerator technology development at Fermilab and collaborating Indian institutions I also continued our focus on agencies level collaboration between US-DOE and India-DAE. In 2011, an implementing agreement between the DOE and DAE was signed that provides the framework for India’s participation in the next generation particle accelerator facility at Fermilab. I on behalf of Fermilab Director coordinated between DOE, US-State, and OSTP to make this collaboration an integral part of the US-India Strategic Dialogue and its Basic Science Working Group. This resulted in the development of two Project Annexes one each for accelerator and neutrino collaboration and approved by the AEC (2013). The Project Annex-I for the accelerator collaboration was signed on the sidelines of President Obama’s visit to India in Jan 2015. The IIFC has developed a detailed scientific and technical plan for collaboration and in-kind contributions to respective domestic programs. The details of the Joint R&D program has been approved and signed by DOE and DAE. The details of the Indian in-kind contributions to the construction phase of PIP-II were finalized by DAE and DOE for the AEC approval in 2013, but has not been formally signed awaiting PIP-II CD-2.
I have been a key player in this collaboration development from the US side and at times even from the India side. During the last decade, while doing all the above collaboration development work at US-India government level, I have also provided the scientific and technical leadership towards the SRF accelerator technology and infrastructure development at the Indian Institutions. Indian collaborating institutions have developed 1) Superconducting cavities with accelerating gradient and quality factor similar to US cavities. 2) RF Power and RF control that are key to PIP-II construction.