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This will be the kick-off Town Hall meeting for the Theory Frontier of the 2021 Snowmass process. The first hour will be about general organization and goals, while the second hour will be directly with the Topical Group of choice for each participant.
REGISTRATION
Please register for the Town Hall meeting here by 5pm EST Wednesday, July 29. Zoom information will be sent to those registering. You can also submit questions during the registration process, and choose the topical group you will be joining during the second hour.
Pre-submitted questions were answered live during the meeting; the questions are appended to the end of the slides for the main presentation, and responses are in the video recording.
Questions submitted via the Q&A format were answered both live and via text. All such questions are posted below. Live responses are in the video recording, while text responses are included here. Due to time constraints, some questions posted during the Q&A were not addressed during the live meeting; these questions and text responses are included below.
Q&A
George Fleming (Yale) 09:17 AM
During Summer Study in Seattle, how many in-person participants are expected/possible given housing/meeting facilities?
Aida El-Khadra 09:51 AM
The meeting is supposed to accommodtae everyone who wants to attend.
Anonymous Attendee 09:21 AM
re: the contributed papers vs LOI, are these going to be solicited by the subcommittees, or are they intended for anyone who wants to to submit one?
This question has been answered live
Daniel Harlow 09:25 AM
Anyone who wants to can submit one, but they may also be solicited.
Shufang Su 09:25 AM
In principle anyone can submit one. Of course topic group can also solicit for a more organized effort. For the contributed paper, there are detailed instructions in the snowmass website.
Han, Tao 09:30 AM
Anyone is encouraged to submit an LOI. They are aimed to help the conveners to gauge the general interests and topics, to be covered in the process. They may or may not lead to a contributed paper or a contribution to the final White paper.
This question has been answered live
Anonymous Attendee 09:36 AM
I’m used to the term “LOI” meaning a precursor to something else, e.g., a statement that one intends to apply for a particular funding opportunity. It doesn’t sound like Snowmass LOIs are used in this way. What is the “Intent” part about? What does the LOI accomplish? Does writing an LOI imply that some subsequent work (e.g., on a White Paper) will follow, or not?
LianTao Wang 09:41 AM
It is a “Letter of Interest”. There is no strict definition, but the primary purpose is to convey to the conveners the interest of pursuing a topic, to help setting the agenda for the subsequent meetings and discussions. Ideally, it would be followed by a contributed paper, but it is not required.
Alexey Petrov 09:43 AM
LOI in the Snowmass context is a “Letter of Interest”, not a “Letter of Intend”. So it might or might not follow by a Contributed Paper.
Daniel Harlow 09:48 AM
I think it can be viewed as a vehicle for "I want to express my opinion but I am too lazy to write a white paper". The downside is that you have to do it nowish if you want it to matter.
Anonymous Attendee 09:40 AM
one of the traditional limitations of DOE for example is creating little boxes and divisions where there aren't any and sometimes punishing interesting research directions that don't fall neatly within these boxes. Is it possible for the leadership of the theory frontier make sure that whatever the final produced document is works to emphasize that this is a thing that should be avoided?
This question has been answered live
Graham Kribs 09:40 AM
There is pending legislation DOE Office of Science Reauthorization Act that appears to be setting budgetary priorities over the next several years. Should we, as a community, respond to this (soon!), especially the importance of research? https://www.aau.edu/sites/default/files/AAU-Files/Key-Issues/Federal-Budget/Agency-Budgets/DOE-Office-of-Science-Reauthorization-Act-7.21-draft.pdf
This question has been answered live
Zack Sullivan 09:42 AM
What is the appropriate place to submit theory whitepapers that affect, e.g., phenomenology applications to the Energy Frontier? We want to establish the importance of theory, but some topics need to be understood in the context of experiment.
LianTao Wang 09:49 AM
I think you can submit to multiple frontiers. IF it is explicitly in support of a high energy experimental effort, I would think it should be primarily to the energy frontier. But, there should be no penalty on submitting to the “wrong” frontier. And, we try all talk to each other enough so that nothing falls into the cracks.
Alexey Petrov 09:50 AM
Yes, you should submit to several Frontiers. There are already several LOIs submitted that explore that route.
Anonymous Attendee 09:44 AM
The chance that a vaccine will be not only available, but widely distributed and effective by March is negligible. It’s fine to hope for otherwise, but are plans being made? Also, I would hope that serious contingency plans are being made in case the Seattle meeting must be virtual.
This question has been answered live
Anonymous Attendee 09:46 AM
I worry that it’s easy to miss messages on Slack when subscribed to multiple Snowmass channels.
Is there an understood “hierarchy of communication modes” so that, for example, I can be assured that any major frontier-wide communication will be sent via e-mail in addition to Slack?
Aida El-Khadra 09:55 AM
Yes. Slack is for discussion. Major announcements will be handled vis email.
We encourage everybody to sign up for the email lists.
Andrew Larkoski 09:46 AM
Are these answers to the questions going to be transcribed and collected somewhere? It can be very hard to find answers to questions of interest in the recorded video.
This question has been answered live
Gordon L Kane 09:49 AM
From Me to All Panelists: 12:42 PM
I want to endorse the organizers comments in a specific way. The P5 summary listed 5 "Physics Drivers", and Theory was not considered a physics driver. That affected funding priorities for the past few years. many lpeople only looked at the list of 5 drivers. Theory needs to be in the llist of physics drivers.
Gordy
This question has been answered live
Lance Dixon 09:52 AM
What do you know about how P5 will be (re)structured to incorporate or recognize the output of the TF?
This question has been answered live
Unanswered during Q&A
Anonymous Attendee 09:53 AM
How long do you expect the final Frontier Summary Document to be? With so many interesting topics being discussed in all the topical groups, the summary might get rather long.
- The frontier summary document is targeted at ~25-30 pages, and will be augmented by the summary documents from each topical group.
Zack Sullivan 09:56 AM
The problem of theory is it is classified as research even if it is a necessary support of projects. This has led to the elimination of funding for multiple theory PIs. I hope someone will directly address this in the summary.
- Absolutely; the aim of the Theory Frontier is to highlight theory both on its own and in support of projects, emphasizing the value of research.
Anonymous Attendee 09:56 AM
Will there be an option of financial support to attend the meeting in Seattle ? Thanks
- Support from DOE and NSF for meeting participation remains TBD. We do not expect support to be widespread, but will also endeavor to keep the participation costs low (e.g. no registration fees).
Andreas Karch 09:57 AM
A follow up to the question just recently asked: I think the worry about pigeon holing is not so much within high energy theory, but between HET and other fields. Work on the border of HET and nuclear physics or HET and condensed matter physics should be protected. It's a strength, not a weakness, that ideas generated in HET also end up being of importance elsewhere. What is done to make sure the snowmass process will not be used as a tool to defund work that is now suddenly considered to be not "within HET".
- Absolutely, thank you. Highlighting the relevance of HET at the boundaries with other communities, and the importance of supporting it within the scope of HET will be a priority.
El abassi Abderrazaq 10:00 AM
Hi, sorry I did't join in the right time,am interested in EFT for DM, is there any presentation material left?
- Please look to the TF03 (EFT) and TF09 (Astroparticle Physics & Cosmology) groups for discussion of this topic.