The meeting took place in the Carlton Park Hotel in Funchal during the 5th Workshop on Fast Ignition of Fusion Targets and the 28th EPS Conference on Controlled Fusion and Plasma Physics. About 35 participants from different European countries had come to the meeting.

J. Meyer-ter-Vehn: Beam Plasma and Inertial Fusion Physics in EPS

F. Wagner (chairman of EPS PPD): View of the EPS Plasma Physics Division

General Discussion

MEYER-TER-VEHN (MtV) opens the meeting at 8:10 pm.

He addresses the following topics:

(1) What happened so far?

(2) Formation of a new section

(3) Planning for near future

MtV explains that the chairman of the EPS Plasma Physics Division (EPS PPD) approached him suggesting creation of an inertial fusion section in late 1999. MtV explored opinions by sending out a seed letter to representatives of the European laser plasma and inertial fusion community in May 2000. He discussed the topic at the ECLIM Board meeting during the Prague ECLIM in June 2000; opinions pro and contra creation of a BPIFP section were split in this Board about 50/50. However, individual response by laser plasma people from different European countries was quite positive. Those who responded positively have been included in the Initiating Group and form the major part of a first mailing list. Encouraged by this response, MtV announced the present first meeting in the March/April 2001 issue of EuroPhysicsNews 32/2 (First Announcement) to create the new section.

The creation of the new section has to conform with the EPS Constitution and By-Laws and has to be approved by the Board of the Plasma Physics Division and the EPS Council. MtV expects that this will happen until the end of 2001. He proposes to use the name "Beam Plasma & Inertial Fusion (BP&IF)" for the new section, though somewhat complicated. MtV has drafted Statutes for the new section, essentially following the Statutes of the other new section on "Dusty and Colloidal Plasmas" founded within PPD-EPS in 1999. The drafted BP&IF Statutes (see STATUTES) are now open for discussion. MtV asks the participants to express their views concerning a BP&IF section and, in case a majority supports the creation, to name people for an Interim Board acting for the section, until the formal procedure is completed and a new Section Board can be elected.

MtV outlines that the major goal of the new section is to promote and coordinate Beam Plasma and Inertial Fusion Physics in Europe, in particular by supporting conferences. Overlapping dates as in the case of ECLIM´2000 in Prague and EPS´2000 in Budapest within the same week should be avoided. Possibilities to establish a European Conference of Plasma Physics, comprising all branches of plasma physics and similar to APS, should be discussed. To what extent the EPS Conf. on Controlled Fusion & Plasma Physics (ECCFPP) and ECLIM are ready to go together for this purpose remains to be seen. First small steps to bring IFE and MFE closer together is to organize satellite meetings within the EPS conference. In this line, MtV presents the following list:

2001 EPS´28 Madeira (fusion-oriented):

Satellite Workshop on Fast Ignition of ICF targets

(now running, organizer J. Meyer-ter-Vehn)

 

2002 EPS´29 Montreux"(general plasma physics):

Satellite Meeting on Laser Particle Acceleration in Plasma

(decided, organizer R. Bingham)

 

2003 EPS´30 St.Petersburg(fusion-oriented):

Substantial IFE contribution (suggested)

A general ´European Conference of Plasma Physics´

is proposed for 2004 in UK by both British IFE and MFE

representatives.

F. WAGNER (FW),

chairman of the Plasma Physics Division (PPD) of the European Physical Society (EPS) then addresses the audience, emphasizing that he supports the formation of a new BPIFP section and that this would strengthen the plasma physics division inside EPS. The Hannes-Alfven Price should be used to integrate all areas of plasma science. There should also be a scientific benefit for all participants. He finds it important to 'get in phase' with different conferences about related topics.

He mentions that a new section on Dusty and Colloidal Plasmas has been formed in 2000, which will hold parallel sessions at the next EPS conference. FW further explains the difference between 'parallel sessions' and 'satellite workshops' (see below), and suggests that ECLIM and those EPS Conferences devoted to general plasma physics (organized in even years) should join together to establish an equal partnership between MFE, IFE and all branches of plasma physics in Europe. He says that, if dominance of MFE at the EPS plasma conference continued, this conference would become a purely technical meeting soon.

FW expresses his concern about recruitment of young people for plasma physics. He notes the general importance of better training of students by internal mobility between the branches of plasma physics. He regrets the weak participation of universities at the EPS plasma conference up to now and adds that he is looking for possibilities to reduce the conference fee. Satellite meetings like the one on Fast Ignition can be granted a reduced fee, but fully integrated plasma conferences with parallel sessions for the different branches would require a common fee.

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DISCUSSION starts at 8:55 pm.

O. WILLI 

from Imperial College, London, chairs the discussion.

P. NORREYS 

from RAL told the participants that he received positive response from both the laser plasma group at Rutherford Lab and leading MCF people at Culham when proposing a joint EPS Conference on Plasma Physics 2004 in London. He also believes that the fast ignition community could profit a lot from the expertise of the MCF community.

F. WAGNER 

remarks that the 2005 EPS meeting could still be moved; final information will be available soon.

J. MTV 

emphasizes that the future of ECLIM is decided by the ECLIM board.

M. KEY 

(now LLNL/USA) recalls that he spent many years trying to get joint ECLIM and EPS meetings; he strongly supports this idea.

K. WITTE 

(MPQ/Garching) regrets that a common language between ICF and MCF is missing and may be a problem for joint conferences.

D. HOFFMANN 

(GSI/Darmstadt) supports the idea of the new section and points to positive experience at the Sorento meeting in 2000.

P. MORA 

(EP/Paris) says he supports the idea of a BPIFP section. He warns, however, that there are too many conferences.

D. PESME 

(EP/Paris): Do not add new conferences; keep up the excitement for young people. Not too many political meetings like ECLIM.

O. WILLI 

emphasizes the difference in how the two communities are funded, MCF rich due to Euratom/governments.

S. ATZENI 

(Univ. Rome) supports the idea of joint EPS/ECLIM meetings, but adds: give it time; it should be a natural process.

D. BATANI 

(Univ. Milano) underligns tremendous progress in the laser-plasma field, pleads for small workshops.

B. SHARKOV 

(ITEP/Moscow) reports that new action to bring IFE and MFE communities closer together also goes on on the national level in Russia, pushed in particular by V. Smirnov, who will be in the St. Petersburg program commitee.

O. WILLI 

reminds the audience that the purpose of the meeting is to decide about a BPIFP section, the structure of future conferences is a second issue to be discussed later.

J. MTV 

underligns formal aspects of creating the new section, a comprehensive mailing list of European BPIFP reserachers has to be set up, an acting board has to be formed, it should represent European countries and groups contributing to the field in a balanced way, the process of the new section has to be announced in the EPS news-letter.

F. WAGNER 

suggests to select a transient board; the plasma physics division should decide about the new section in its next meeting. There has to be an annual report to the EPS. The new section is responsible as a section to EPS. He mentions that there are plans to change the 11-year-old statutes for sections within the EPS.

O. WILLI 

suggests to discuss the title of the new section.

An inconclusive discussion evolves concerning the name of the new section:

D. PESME suggests 'beam generated plasmas',

O. WILLI wants'ICF' to appear in the title,

D. HOFFMANN suggests 'High Energy Density Plasma Physics', but

P. NORREYS dislikes it.

However, there is general agreement that the new section should be created.

F. WAGNER 

suggests Meyer-ter-Vehn as chairman and proposes to select candidates for a transient board to make suggestions.After a short discussion, the participants agree to nominate the following members for an acting Interim Board:

Lefebvre (France),

Meyer-ter-Vehn (Germany, chairman)

Atzeni (Italy),

Wolowski (Poland),

Sharkov (Russia)

Honrubia (Spain),

Norreys (UK).

All those nominated are present at the meeting and agree to serve on the Board, until first elections will take place.

The discussion closes at 21.40h.

The minutes were collected by A. Kemp