Minutes of the HERA Meeting 28.2.2006

HERA (F.Willeke):
Lumi production underway, with 120 bunches, 60-66 mA p on 20-25 mA e-.
HERA produced 4 pb^-1 at H1 and ZEUS, with good duty cycle, no major
technical problems.
e- current limited by injection efficiency and instability on the ramp.
Will be studied this week.

ZEUS (T.Schoerner):
Took about 2.5 pb^-1 with HV on. Varying background conditions lead to
HV eff. between 50 and 85%.
Moving the IP position to the 2005 values reduced the Veto Wall rates.
Some fills had SynRad BG. Cured by HERA after identifying trustworthy BPMs.

H1 (D.Ozerov):
took 2.5 pb^-1 with HV on, congratulated HERA for the good startup!
Normalized chamber current due to p BG is at 1.7 from the vacuum, with
upward excursions from beam steering. Expect significant improvement from
NEG regeneration on the maintenance day. H1 would then be ready for 150
bunch operation with higher beam currents.

Hermes (E.Aschenauer):
Very low BG conditions. Commissioning of the recoil detector ongoing.
Plan to operate the solenoid regularly after the maintenance day.
Heating of the target cell was studied with 25 mA in 120 bunches at
12 GeV. Equilibrium reached at 370 K within 1 hour.
Extrapolation to 450 K limit: 35 mA in 120 bunches, 43 mA in 180 bunches.
Higher currents OK if injection is fast enough.
Modifications to the target cell are under study.

Plan:
Maintenance day Wed 1.3.06. GO/GG warmup in N and S, NEG regeneration,
pumping, cooldown.
Access to tunnels until 14:00, to experiments until 22:00.
3 shifts of machine studies for p long. damper and p RF tuning: Thu.
Study of e injection and ramping to overcome 25 mA limitation: Fri.
Prepare 150 bunch operation.

H1 is coordinating experiment.

Daniel Pitzl