Despite the unquestionable progress made in the last years (Far site excavation, ProtoDUNE, FD TDR,….), LBNF/DUNE is currently experiencing a poor acceptance in the HEP community, as a result of the (real or perceived) cost increase, the delayed schedule and the apparent loss of competitivity with other large neutrino programs.
All these problems, none of them stemming from unbreakable laws of nature, are seriously challenging the future of DUNE, which in our shared perception remains the ‘best in class’ experiment which will explore the neutrino physics in the next decades.
Therefore, we urgently need to:
- • Bring back the start of physics with a beam, two FD modules and a baseline ND complex (ND-LAr, TMS, SAND and PRISM) to the original 2029 date or at latest to year 2030.
- • Contribute to a rapid definition of the global cost of the LBNF/DUNE project, removing the uncertainties which currently are inflating the total project cost.
- • Consolidate the 2013 P5 recommendations in the ongoing Snowmass/P5 process, which must clearly state the importance of LBNF/DUNE in the present and in the future of the globalized HEP landscape.
- • Break the chicken-and-egg loop between the DoE and the International Funding Agencies, by improving the communications and the decision-making process as well as by increasing the support of the non-US partners.
It is a demanding task, which requires a large and coordinated effort from the DUNE community, the DoE and the International Funding Agencies and recent discussions among the DoE high level officials, the Host Lab and the International Funding Agencies encourage us to pursue it.
I am sure that we will not withdraw from doing our share, firstly by reaffirming our ownership of DUNE through its original “Cern model” and by providing an intense, inclusive, gender balanced environment capable to mate the optimism of the will with the realism of the mind.