The ISOLDE facility is an ISOL-based radioactive beam facility at CERN. It is dedicated to the production and research of nuclei far from stability. Exotic nuclei of variety of chemical elements are ...available for the study of nuclear structure, nuclear astrophysics, fundamental symmetries and atomic physics, as well as for applications in condensed-matter and life sciences. Since longer than a decade it has offered the largest variety of post-accelerated radioactive beams in the world. In order to broaden the scientific opportunities beyond the present ISOLDE facility, the on-going HIE-ISOLDE (High Intensity and Energy) project will provide major improvements in energy range, beam intensity and beam quality. The first phase will boost the beam energy of the current REX LINAC to 5.5MeV/u resulting in larger cross sections for Coulomb excitation compared to the previous maximum energy of 3MeV/u. Higher energies will also open up many transfer reaction channels. Physics with post-accelerated beams starts in autumn 2015. The second phase of the project is already approved and is expected to be completed in 2018 allowing beam energies up to 10MeV/u for A/q=4.5. In this contribution the present status of the ISOLDE facility including some highlights will be discussed. The HIE-ISOLDE project will be described together with a panorama of the physics cases to be addressed.
ISOLDE past, present and future Borge, Maria J G; Jonson, Björn
Journal of physics. G, Nuclear and particle physics,
04/2017, Letnik:
44, Številka:
4
Journal Article
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The idea of production of short-lived radioisotopes with the on-line technique has it roots in the early 1950s. In 1964 this became a reality when CERN approved an experiment at the 600 MeV proton ...synchro-cyclotron, the SC. The first experiments were performed in 1967 and since then the ISOLDE programme has gradually developed into a major undertaking. Since 1992 the ISOLDE Radioactive Beam Facility is linked to an external proton beam from the PS Booster. Today this 50 years old 'lady' is more vital than ever. With the successful start of HIE-ISOLDE in 2015 one may conclude that the facility is ready to face the next half century with the boost of the success and the necessary knowledge to face new challenges. In this introductory article we give an overview of the history and pick up a few examples along the nuclear chart as illustrations of the experimental achievements.
The first 2+ and 3- states of the doubly magic nucleus Sn132 are populated via safe Coulomb excitation employing the recently commissioned HIE-ISOLDE accelerator at CERN in conjunction with the ...highly efficient MINIBALL array. The Sn132 ions are accelerated to an energy of 5.49 MeV/nucleon and impinged on a Pb206 target. Deexciting γ rays from the low-lying excited states of the target and the projectile are recorded in coincidence with scattered particles. The reduced transition strengths are determined for the transitions 0g.s.+→21+, 0g.s.+→31-, and 21+→31- in Sn132. The results on these states provide crucial information on cross-shell configurations which are determined within large-scale shell-model and Monte Carlo shell-model calculations as well as from random-phase approximation and relativistic random-phase approximation. The locally enhanced B(E2;0g.s.+→21+) strength is consistent with the microscopic description of the structure of the respective states within all theoretical approaches. The presented results of experiment and theory can be considered to be the first direct verification of the sphericity and double magicity of Sn132.
We report on the current status of the ion beam laboratory of the Centre of Micro-Analysis of Materials at the Autonomous University of Madrid. The 5 MV accelerator facility provides MeV ion beams of ...any stable element. Six main beam lines are under operation, allowing the analysis and modification of materials through ion beam methods. Although the most demanded ions are H and He for standard Rutherford backscattering spectrometry and particle-induced X-ray emission experiments, many other analytical techniques and specific set-ups are available for users. The facility especially highlights for the use of high-energy heavy ions and microbeams, with important applications in material science, optics and electronics, biology, cultural heritage, and astrophysics. Ongoing upgrades of the facility are oriented to improve the quality of the service for external users and to face new scientific and technological challenges in areas such as advanced materials, space, energy and health.
Proton therapy is a cancer treatment technique currently in growth since it offers advantages with respect to conventional X-ray and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\gamma ...</tex-math></inline-formula>-ray radiotherapy. In particular, better control of the dose deposition allowing to reach higher conformity in the treatments causing less secondary effects. However, in order to take full advantage of its potential, improvements in treatment planning and dose verification are required. A new prototype of proton computed tomography scanner is proposed to design more accurate and precise treatment plans for proton therapy. Our prototype is formed by double-sided silicon strip detectors and scintillators of LaBr 3 (Ce) with high energy resolution and fast response. Here, the results obtained from an experiment performed using a 100-MeV proton beam are presented. Proton radiographs of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) samples of 50-mm thickness with spatial patterns in aluminum were taken. Their properties were studied, including reproduction of the dimensions, spatial resolution, and sensitivity to different materials. Structures of up to 2 mm are well resolved and the sensitivity of the system was enough to distinguish the thicknesses of 10 mm of aluminum or PMMA. The spatial resolution of the images was 0.3 line pairs per mm (MTF-10%). This constitutes the first step to validate the device as a proton radiography scanner.
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The ISOLDE facility at CERN offers the largest selection of ISOL beams today. The overall aim of the HIE-ISOLDE project is to enlarge the physics domains achievable with these beams, in particular ...by raising the maximum energy of post-accelerated beams to more than 10MeV/u. An outline of the history of the project is followed by a succinct description of the superconducting linac chosen for acceleration and an overview of the parts of the project aiming to the improvement of the beam quality and intensity. Concrete examples are given of experiments that will be performed at HIE-ISOLDE.
The current evaluation of the triple-α reaction rate assumes that the α decay of the 7.65 MeV, 0+ state in 12C, commonly known as the Hoyle state, proceeds sequentially via the ground state of 8Be. ...This assumption is challenged by the recent identification of two direct α-decay branches with a combined branching ratio of 17(5)%. If correct, this would imply a corresponding reduction in the triple-α reaction rate with important astrophysical consequences. We have used the 11B(3He,d) reaction to populate the Hoyle state and measured the decay to three α particles in complete kinematics. We find no evidence for direct α-decay branches, and hence our data do not support a revision of the triple-α reaction rate. We obtain an upper limit of 5×10(-3) on the direct α decay of the Hoyle state at 95% C.L., which is 1 order of magnitude better than a previous upper limit.
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