Introduction  Title page  Contents

Preamble

The Role of NuPECC

NuPECC is an Associated Committee of the European Science Foundation. Its Terms of Reference state that:

The objective of NuPECC is to:

• strengthen European collaboration in nuclear science through the promotion of nuclear physics and its trans-disciplinary use and application.

In pursuing this objective the Committee shall

• define a network of complementary facilities within Europe and encourage optimisation of their usage
• provide a forum for the discussion of the provision of future facilities and instrumentation and
• provide advice and make recommendations to the ESF and to others bodies on the development, organisation and support of European nuclear research and of particular projects.

Guided by these Terms of Reference, NuPECC has initiated an analysis of ongoing and future research activities in the field of nuclear physics in Europe. The result of this effort is documented in the present report entitled ``Nuclear Physics in Europe: Highlights and Opportunities''. It follows a previous analysis published by NuPECC in December 1991. It contains a review of the field, recommendations for future developments, and a chapter which describes the present and future possibilities of the corresponding research facilities in Europe. This is the first attempt to define a network of facilities within Europe that include local and national facilities as well as European laboratories which are complementary and guarantee international access.

The report is intended to serve as an input into the decision-making process of the various local, national and international committees and agencies which have to discuss and decide about future investments in the field. NuPECC intends to meet representatives of the funding agencies in order to present this analysis of the scientific perspectives of nuclear physics, and to discuss how the adopted recommendations can be implemented through collaborative ventures in Europe.

The present report only discusses basic research in nuclear physics; the trans-disciplinary use and application of nuclear science have been presented in a report entitled ``Impact and Applications of Nuclear Science in Europe: Opportunities and Perspectives'' published by NuPECC in December 1994. More detailed information on nuclear physics facilities in Europe (accelerators, major instrumentation, access for foreign users) is contained in the regularly published ``NuPECC Handbook: International Access to Nuclear Physics Facilities in Europe''.

The Preparation of the Report

The decision to initiate a new review of ongoing and future research in nuclear physics was taken by the committee in the beginning of 1996, since the previous exercise had started more than 6 years ago. The work was organised as follows:

The field was defined and split up into six main areas. A letter of charge was sent to the conveners chosen by NuPECC with the mission to form working groups and to prepare reports which contain highlights and open problems as well as recommendations on how to proceed in the respective sub-field within an international context.

In a first meeting of NuPECC with the conveners it was agreed upon that

• the conveners are free to select the members of their working groups,
• the final reports of the working groups, published as separate chapters in the NuPECC report, are the conveners' sole responsibility,
• the overall recommendations in the beginning of the NuPECC report reflect only the view of NuPECC.

In March 1996, the working groups were formed and NuPECC members were assigned as liaison persons. From March 1996 through March 1997, intense discussions took place within the community. Town meetings or topical workshops were used as a forum for these discussions. This ``bottom-up'' approach led to the completion of a first version of the working groups' reports by April 1997. These reports were displayed on the WorldWideWeb in order to provide the community with an additional opportunity to introduce comments and suggestions.

A workshop was organised in Munich on April 23 to 26, 1997, where the working groups' reports were discussed for two days between the conveners and NuPECC members. An afternoon was devoted to a discussion with the directors of the major European research facilities (CERN, DESY, GSI, GANIL, Gran Sasso). Following these discussions, a zero-order draft of ``NuPECC Recommendations'' was prepared. The working groups' reports and the draft of the ``NuPECC Recommendations'' were then presented to an audience of about 100 nuclear physicists and intensely discussed.

From April to December 1997, the working groups' reports were finalised. A NuPECC editorial committee was formed in order to formulate the ``NuPECC Recommendations'', the chapter ``Towards a Network of Complementary Research Facilities'' and the ``Introduction''. The final version was discussed and endorsed by NuPECC at its meeting on November 7 and 8, 1997.

The Structure of the Report

The present report is organised as follows:

• Acknowledgements (blue pages)
• Introduction (blue pages)
• Recommendations (blue pages)
• Towards a Network of Complementary Research Facilities in Europe (blue pages)

The six chapters containing the working groups' reports (white pages):

• Nuclear Structure under Extreme Conditions
• Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions and the Phase Transitions of Nuclear Matter
• Quark and Hadron Dynamics
• Nuclear and Particle Astrophysics
• Neutrino Physics
• Fundamental Interactions

The first part of this report reflects the views of the committee although these views have been strongly influenced by those expressed by the community. The corresponding pages are printed on blue paper.

The second part contains the reports from the working groups formulated under the responsibility of the conveners. This part is printed on white pages.