PHELIX and Plasmaphysics Program Advisory Committee (PPAC)

The PHELIX and Plasmaphysics Program Advisory Committee (PPAC) is an international program advisory committee of GSI/FAIR. It gives advice to the Directorate on selecting experiment proposals that are submitted by individual users or user groups in the field of plasma physics with ions and lasers, currently for the FAIR-Phase 0 program. Proposal evaluations are based on scientific merit and with regard to the GSI/FAIR strategy, and lead to recommendations on the amount of beam time to be allotted by the Scientific Director.

'Call for Proposals at PHELIX'

The GSI/FAIR Scientific Management invites users to submit experiment proposals in the framework of FAIR Phase-0 for the high-energy/high-power laser PHELIX – i.e. laser-only experiments, no laser-ion combinations!

As in the present situation granted experiments with ions cannot run, laser time might be offered already from September 2026 onwards up to end of 2027. Due to the very short time up to Sept. 2026, please indicate in your proposal when you could run the experiment!

Experiments at our laser facility Petawatt High-Energy Laser for Heavy Ion EXperiments (PHELIX) cover a variety of research fields, e.g. atomic physics, plasma physics, extreme matter physics, laser-particle acceleration. In the present call, a total of approx. 170 shifts of PHELIX beamtime can be offered corresponding to roughly 8 to 9 experiments.

Submission is open until April 13, 2026. This call does not include experiments with ions!

Note:

  • It is advisable to start proposal submission early and discuss it before final submission with your Link Scientist.
  • All participants of a proposal need to be registered in GATE and added as 'Co-Proposers' to the proposal.

For more information on submission of PHELIX proposals via GATE please see below (Proposal Submission) and here: Information for PHELIX users.

For information on beamtime planning and scheduling at PHELIX see: Beamtime Planning at PHELIX.

Laser and experiment parameters are given under www.gsi.de/PHELIX-parameters.

Proposals are to be submitted via the web-based platform GATE: “General Access Tool to the Experimental Infrastructures of GSI”, where a description of the planned experiment (pdf) is to be uploaded. The pdf is to be structured as explained here. Editing the forms can be interrupted and resumed at any time, allowing a later upload of the proposal text or re-editing of entries. Therefore, it is recommended to begin editing as early as possible.

Each participant of a proposal is required to register1 at GATE and it so be included as co-called Co-Proposer. In particular, we urgently ask you to consult the Link Scientist of the experimental site in question as soon as possible and well before final submission to discuss technical details and feasibility of the experiment, and for guidance with the application forms. After submission, correcting your request is not possible. Please consider that close to submission deadline and around Easter the Link Scientis might not be available! The Link Scientist is chosen in the GATE forms, and can be contacted e.g., via GATE upon a first draft completion of all forms in the step ‘Submit’.

Please note that due to current European sanctions participants with Russian or Belarussian affiliation cannot be participants in experiment proposals at GSI/FAIR.

For questions on GATE: GATE-Help(at)gsi.de (Karin Füssel)

For information on the process: short GATE manual, www.gsi.de/ppac and www.gsi.de/proposal-structure. 

 

After Submission:

The Scientific Management will ask an external Program Advisory Committee for evaluation of proposals before granting beamtime2. Beamtime granted in this round will expire after the period indicated in this ‘Call’.

 

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(1) All participants of a proposal or experiment need to register themselves and allow being searchable for other users. General Data Protection Regulation GDPR apply according to Art. 13 and 14 DSGVO: Staff Management Board GDPR english. 

(2) Beamtime is granted at no charge within the framework of the Helmholtz Association: "Rahmenrichtlinie über die Nutzung von Forschungsanlagen der Helmholtz-Zentren durch Dritte” (1.3.2000), §II. 1.2. GSI/FAIR need to report to funding agencies on user operation and user communities in form of statistical data.

Please note that GSI does not cover the consumables and investments necessary for running an experiment.

PHELIX can provide access for laser experiments in the PHELIX hall, and alternatively at the Z6 target station at UNILAC and at HHT at SIS18. For information on current laser and experimental parameters please refer to www.gsi.de/PHELIX-parameters or contact the respective person responsible for the target station of interest:

Further contacts:

Details on the laser and laser diagnostics: Vincent Bagnoud

PPAC Scientific Secretary: Karin Füssel

TNA Funding

Applicants eligible to the European funding program 'Lasers4EU' are encouraged to submit a funding application additionally to 'Lasers4EU' for obtaining financial support. Indicating during proposal submission your interest in this funding serves as internal information only and does not replace a dedicated funding application at Lasers4EU.

Note that Lasers4EU offers financial support for researchers from Europe, and to some extent also for users from non-EU countries.

GSI-Contact on Lasers4EU: Zsuzsanna Slattery-Major 

For information on submission of proposals see: Procedure to Apply for Beamtime.

For proposal and user management we use the platform GATE: General Access Tool to the Experimental facilities of GSI/FAIR.

Registration to GATE under: https://gate.gsi.de

GATE Short Manual for Users: here

Registration in GATE is possible independant of an open 'Call' at any time, and registered users will be informed on new 'Calls'. So it is advisable for interested users to register any time.

All (!) users, i.e. participants of a proposal and users coming on-site for the experiment (experimentalists) need to be registered in GATE - and allow being visible for other users' searches in GATE.

A Research Data Management Plan (RDMP) is currently not mandatory, but users are asked to plan ahead of time how to take, manage, process and store their data, and think about its possible later publication. This also helps in formulating a request for host lab resources, e.g. IT support, if required. For more information see this document.

Experiments with granted beamtime (i.e. ranked A) are listed in this table. It contains experiments in the status after granting and before completion/expiry, and gives number of granted shifts.

Experiments in the reserve list have been ranked A- due to large overdraft of beamtime. They might be scheduled if beamtime becomes available. 

Data are updated before and after a beamtime block.

For information on submission of PHELIX proposals please see: Information for PHELIX users,

and for  planning and scheduling of PHELIX experiments see: Beamtime Planning at PHELIX.

 

Further information on application and scheduling of beamtime is given under the websites Applying for Beamtime. General information on ion (!) beamtime can be found here.

Members of the PPAC

  • Dr. Sophia Chen
    ELI-NP, Romania
  • Prof. Dr. Antonio Roberto Piriz (for the HED@FAIR Collaboration)
    Inst. de Investigaciones Energéticas (INEI), Univ. of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain
  • Dr. Thomas Schenkel
    Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, USA
  • Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schramm (Chair)
    Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Germany
  • Prof. Dr. Luca Volpe
    Polytechnic University of Madrid & Centro de Láseres Pulsados (CLPU) Salamanca, Spain

PPAC Scientific Secretary

Dr. Karin Füssel

GSI, Darmstadt

Phone: +49-6159-71 1441

Fax: +49-6159-71 2991

contact by E-Mail to: PPAC-Secretary(at)gsi.de

 

committee meetings
Upcoming PPAC meetings:

meeting # datemeeting web page
2018-19 June 2026

Previous PPAC meetings:

meeting # datemeeting web page
1923-24 January 2025
185-6 February 2024
1712-13 September 2022
166-7 December 2021
155-6 October 2020
1425-26 July 2019
1311-12 October 2018
1214-15 August 2017
1121-22 September 2016
1028 September 2015
94-5 December 2014
813-14 March 2014
79-10 January 2013
617-18 November 2011
58-9 November 2010
429-30 September 2009
31 December - 28 February 2008
23-4 April 2006
122-24 September 2004

Dokuments in DOXIS (for committee members only)

User Services

Information for Users on services and beam time, as well as instructions how to register to the Users Mailinglist for receiving information like opening of "Calls for Proposals" can be found on the Users' Webpages.  

Central point of contact for associated guests and users on campus is the Welcome Office.

 

Beamtime Proposals & Experiments:

'Call for Proposals' are sent to users registered in GATE and published through the users' mailinglist. For registering to this mailinglist please see the Users Webpage.

Information on applications and scheduling of beam time is given under the websites: Applying for Beamtime. General information on ion (!) beamtime can be found here.

 

General Data Protection Regulation GDPR (according to Art. 13 and 14 DSGVO): Staff Management Board GDPR english


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