The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has allocated funding for three project proposals associated with TRIUMF. This funding announcement acknowledges not only the TRIUMF advantage in several key areas but also the enthusiasm of U.S. scientists to collaborate with their Canadian counterparts. "These are fundamentally important projects and a great benefit to us at TRIUMF," said TRIUMF Science Division Head Gordon Ball.
The first proposal includes TRIUMF's Pierre Bricault and Lia Merminga in collaboration with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for development of novel targets for isotope production associated with TRIUMF's ISAC facility and the recently announced FRIB facility in the U.S. The second proposal includes TRIUMF's John Behr and Matt Pearson in collaboration with the University of Maryland for a francium-isotope trapping facility to study fundamental physics. The third proposal included TRIUMF's Jens Dilling and Friedhelm Ames in collaboration with the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) at Michigan State University for development of a prototype charge-breeder instrument called an EBIT.
"It is very encouraging that these projects are being explored by international scientists and that the U.S. Department of Energy has enabled funding to support these substantial projects," said TRIUMF Director, Nigel Lockyer. Each of the three initiatives is described in more detail below.
Development of Novel Actinide Ceramics and Materials as a Source of Rare Isotope Beams for the U.S. Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB)
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| Figure 1. Layout of the FRIB Driver linac |
The research proposal on the "Development of Novel Actinide Ceramics and Materials as a Source of Rare Isotope Beams for the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB)" will examine the target-ion source combination. Researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California are principal investigators for the project, though the project is of critical importance for the success of any Rare Isotope Beam (RIB) facility.
Head of TRIUMF's targets group, Pierre Bricault observed, "This is a very important experiment for the future of the ISAC program at TRIUMF - particularly the actinide target research." At TRIUMF's ISAC facility high-power target operation at 50 kW of proton beam power is presently routinely achieved. The development of composite targets and of ion sources that can withstand these relatively high-radiation environment have allowed the production of high intensity, rare-isotope beams of greater variety. Recently TRIUMF successfully completed a second round of tests with actinide targets, the material of choice for the U.S. FRIB facility.
The U.S. funded proposal addresses some of the most challenging aspects of rare-isotope beam (RIB) production - those related to target materials. In any rare-isotope beam facility it is the combination of the target and ion-source that is the most critical for production of high-intensity beams. The proposed research on target materials with faster release rates of short-lived radionuclides promises both higher intensities as well as longer uninterrupted operation, resulting in increased availability of the facility. The research will take advantage of TRIUMF's demonstrated capabilities with these types of targets. In addition to researchers from Livermore and TRIUMF, the collaborating team includes scientists from the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, Rutgers University, and CERN.
Francium Trapping Facility
In October of 2008 a request for funding was made to the U.S. DOE to construct a Francium Trapping Facility (FTF) at the TRIUMF's ISAC by the Francium Parity Non Conservation (FrPNC) international collaboration. The new funding pledged from DOE will provide a suitable environment and equipment to carry out the project. The planned FRIB facility in the U.S. will have experiments that utilize high-resolution atomic spectroscopy, the technique to be "practiced" in the FTF. One goal of the FTF is to measure the anapole moment of francium in a chain of isotopes by observing its parity violating character, induced by the weak interaction. The measurement will provide crucial information for better understanding weak hadronic interactions in the context of Quantum Chromodynamics. Another objective is to measure the strength of the parity-violating interaction between the atomic electrons and the quarks in the nucleus, and compare the results to the predictions of the standard model.
The DOE intends to provide support for this initiative at over three quarters of a million dollars over a five-year time period. The proposal was made by Luis Orozco, University of Maryland; Seth Aubin, College of William and Mary, and Dan Melconian, Texas A&M. The collaborating physicists include Gerald Gwinner, University of Manitoba and TRIUMF scientists Matt Pearson and John Behr; Eduardo Gomez, Universidad Autonoma de San Luis Potosi, Mexico; Gene Sprouse, SUNY Stony Brook, U.S.; and Victor Flambaum, University of New South Wales, Australia.
Efficient and Fast EBIT Charge Breeder for Intense Rare Isotope Beams
Researchers from TRIUMF including ISAC Science group head Jens Dilling and ions source expert Friedhelm Ames, in collaboration with the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) at Michigan State University (MSU), Livermore National Lab., the ISOLDE facility at CERN, and the Max-Planck-Institute for Nuclear Physics at Heidelberg submitted a proposal to the DOE entitled "Efficient and Fast EBIT Charge Breeder for Intense Rare Isotope Beams." The approved research will lead to the development of an advanced charge breeder which, once implemented, will enhance the reacceleration capabilities and will be a key component for new initiatives at TRIUMF, as well as the future facility FRIB in the U.S.
NSCL is implementing a system to reaccelerate rare isotope beams from projectile fragmentation to energies of about 3 MeV/u. The breeder is optimized to provide a high storage capacity, a high beam acceptance and uses a continuous injection and beam accumulation scheme explicitly, which makes it unique. The electron beam system and the magnet configuration are specialized to guarantee a high acceptance of the Electron Beam Ion Trap (EBIT) as well as rapid and efficient charge state breeding. The prototype EBIT will be designed, built, and commissioned at Michigan and then installed and tested under 'on-line' conditions at TRIUMF. The three year proposal to the DOE has a total cost of well over three and a half million dollars and will be providing valuable experience for the collaboration's eventual work at the U.S. facility, as well as for the collaborators in Europe (CERN and Heidelberg) and of course here at TRIUMF.
The system will provide breeding capabilities of highly charged rare-isotopes at unprecedented breeding times and efficiencies. The implementation of charge breeding is a key to obtain a compact and cost-efficient device and it is foreseen in the development of a re-accelerator at NSCL and later at FRIB. The charge breeder for the NSCL will be based on a modified design of the only EBIT system running at a rare-beam facility, the TITAN EBIT breeder at ISAC.
-- Melissa M. Baluk, TRIUMF Communications Assistant
Images courtesy of the U.S. Department of Energy