Date: Tue, 07 Sep 2004 10:47:57 -0400 From: Roger D. CarliniTo: Allena Opper , mack@jlab.org, neven@phys.latech.edu, pitt@vt.edu, tony@phys.latech.edu, grimm@jlab.org, finn@jlab.org, jmammei@vt.edu, nmorgan@vt.edu, smithg@jlab.org, birchall@physics.umanitoba.ca, armd@jlab.org, yl0094a@jlab.org Cc: smithg@jlab.org Subject: Qweak working group - Comments Hi Folks: My understanding of where we stand is the following: 1) We have re-established a base design which will allow us to achieve a 4% qweak measurement in about 2200 hours + comissioning time (at 85% polarization) even after a deduct for internal radiative effects. There are infact several solutions to choose from at various are Q**2 and Theta acceptances which fit on a slightly longer than 2 meter bar. 2) Also, there seems to be more agressive solutions which would reduce the running time significantly, but at a price: a) Operating at a higher average Q**2 --> potentially requiring a better determination of the residual helicity correlated hadronic ff's. and/or b) Opening up Theta and Phi to such an extent that the detector concept/geometry must be radically altered. 3) Mike Finn has also observed that if the target were moved upstream we could force the average Q**2 significanly lower. I believe this will work but at the loss of solid ange and asymmetry, but its worth a Monte-Carlo run. This might be a nice "hold in reserve" along with the option to reduce the beam energy as a means of "tweaking" the average Q**2 at run time if we conclude that we need to suppress the residual helicity correlated hadronic ff's further. My bet is that we won't need to do this for a 4% measurement. Bottom line: We first need to confirm that we have not missed any "easy" improvements in running time and make a call between approaches 1 and 2 above. We might consider going with the conservative approach 1 for the jeopardy proposal and keep working on option 2 quietly for the 4% (or possibly better) production run. If after analysis we believe that the hadronic ff's contributions can be kept small then the optimization criteria may be very different and the experiment's ultimate goal will likely change. Best Regards Roger