Session E3: Rare Isotope Physics and Facilities

The Rare Isotope Accelerator: Driver Linac

The Rare Isotope Accelerator (RIA) is the highest priority for major new construction in the Nuclear Science Advisory Committee's Long Range Plan (April 2002). In addition, RIA is tied for third position among near term priorities in the Department of Energy's twenty-year facility plan (November 2003). RIA's high priority derives from its unique ability to help answer fundamental questions such as the origin of the heavier elements and to probe the fundamental laws of physics. RIA will produce rare isotopes at the very limits of stability that are not now available any place on earth. RIA begins with a high-power superconducting heavy-ion linac called the Driver Linac. The Driver Linac will accelerate any stable isotope from protons through uranium to energies of 400 MeV/u or more with a beam power of 100 kW to 400 kW. After acceleration of a stable isotope in the Driver Linac, the best known methods will be used to produce rare isotopes from the 100{\%} duty factor beam. A general facility overview will be given, presenting key facility elements and isotope production mechanisms. Specific Driver Linac issues will be presented, including risk mitigation, failure mode analysis, as well as possible design solutions.   

ISOL Systems: Design and Physics Potential

The RIA facility is being proposed to elucidate a number of key questions in the fields of nuclear structure physics, astrophysics and fundamental interaction physics. Many of these key questions are best addressed with beams of short-lived radioactive isotopes at very low energy or reaccelerated to energy in the range from that typical of explosive astrophysical events up to the Coulomb barrier regime. To fulfill its goal, RIA must have far greater capabilities in this energy regime than existing facilities. This is achieved by using a combination of high power ISOL targets and a new approach combining the advantages of the ISOL and fragmentation techniques to yield beams of a broad array of short-lived isotopes at intensity approaching that available so far only with beams of stable isotopes. The physics questions that will be addressed with these beams will be presented together with a detailed description of the concepts and underlying R\&D that enable this breakthrough in performance. This work was supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Physics, under Contract Nos. W-31-109-ENG-38 and DE- FG-06-90ER-41132.   

Experiments and goals with present and future in-flight separators

Modern methods of production and separation of exotic nuclear beams are presented. The research potential of in-flight separators is demonstrated with key experiments performed with separators and their combination with storage-cooler rings and ion traps. These combinations represent novel experimental developments with a large potential for research and applications. Although the present facilities have contributed much to the progress in the field of nuclear physics, major new fields will be open up by the next-generation facilities presently under construction or planned. The challenges in physics, instrumentation and technical developments will also be covered in this review talk including the present efforts in many institutes worldwide.