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Interview with Professor John Womersley

Panagiotis Charitos — Mon, 06 Mar 2017 13:29:05 +0000

Interview with Prof. John Womersley, Director of ESS
by Panos Charitos (CERN)

Professor John Womersley (Image: ESS)

Accelerating News Editor in Chief, Panos Charitos, sat down with Director General of the European Spallation Source (ESS) Professor John Womersley to discuss his experience at ESS and the future of European infrastructures and projects.

PC: Which are the main challenges in your new mandate as Director General of ESS?

JW: The European Spallation Source (ESS) is one of the world’s largest scientific facilities and as such presents many interesting challenges. Scientists, staff, partner institutions and countries across Europe have come together to build what will be the world's leading neutron source for research on materials and life sciences. ESS will provide up to 100 times brighter neutron beams than existing facilities today and this calls for the development of state-of-the-art technologies.

The limitations of reactor technology have long been known and there is a consensus that accelerator driven spallation sources are the next step forward. With an improved source there is also the need for ESS to develop increasingly sophisticated instruments and detectors.

All these developments are taking place in a green-field site in Lund, Sweden and everything has to be built from scratch. ESS is not part of an existing laboratory so we now have to develop the infrastructures and also recruit the staff that will operate the neutron source once it is running.

Visualisation of the European Spallation Source (ESS) in Lund (Image: ESS)

ESS is receiving in-kind contributions from almost 100 different partner institutes and suppliers from around Europe. The large amount of in-kind contributions also poses a significant integration challenge that adds to the complexity of the project. Over the past year, instrument design has advanced rapidly, with scope-setting, engineering, and the establishment of each instrument’s budget and schedule.

One way to think of the challenge is that it is like putting the ATLAS or CMS detectors together and integrating the different subdetectors that are designed and build by different international teams of physicists. This also presents us with a great opportunity to build a truly international laboratory on a site that is very hospitable and very welcoming to researchers and partners from all over the world.

PC: What are the main advantages of ESS that attract new members?

JW: There are important material science communities in many countries across Europe. Let me note that material science is important as it addresses many of the big challenges that lie ahead in the 21st century, including energy sustainability, health-care, and climate challenge. Further developments require new materials with unique properties and neutron scattering is an excellent way to explore and monitor the properties of these materials at molecular and atomic level, thus allowing for the development of new materials.

(Credit: ESS)

ESS will go way beyond what is currently available in terms of the neutron flux and instrumentation capability. ESS builds on an existing vision in Europe that dates at least 50 years but is a facility that offers vastly expanding capabilities.

PC: What do you bring from your previous experience as CEO of STFC in this challenging role?

JW. I think that my background in particle physics gave me an invaluable experience in building large-scale projects and managing them in a collaborative way; lot of different laboratories coordinate to build different pieces of instrumentation and integrate them in a single project. In my view, the particle physics community has an excellent track record of delivering collaborative projects on time and on budget.

Moreover, from my role in STFC comes an appreciation of the multi and inter-disciplinary aspects that are common in ESS. One could think ESS as applying cutting-edge accelerator technologies (using superconducting RF cavities conceived for future particle physics accelerators) but using them to address challenges in engineering and biophysics and healthcare. Under my leadership, STFC has developed a very good track record for making the case for Big Science to all the involved stakeholder groups.

Last but not least, through the years I always kept an eye on science communication and advocacy which is very important for ESS but also for other laboratories around the world. Stakeholders in large-scale scientific projects need to be continually reminded of their value and importance.

PC: Why do you think is important to continue investing in large-scale research infrastructures?

JW. I think there are many reasons. First of all the open questions in science, whether it is fundamental physics, astronomy or engineering, require that we develop new instruments and push further back existing technologies.

If we want to progress in science we need scientific infrastructures that offer new capabilities beyond our present horizon. This means investing resources in new and large-scale research facilities. It takes a lot of time to design and build them while they require both human and financial resources which is why we need to build big collaborations to achieve in these efforts.

Particle physics has been working this way for many decades while other fields like biomedical research are now starting to form large collaborative activities and becoming accustomed to this new way of doing fundamental research.

To make these large-scale research infrastructures sustainable I think it is important to recognize some of the risks and challenges linked to the size of these big projects. First of all, there is typically a long time from concept to realization and thus we should ensure that students and post-doctoral researchers have plenty of working opportunities during the different stages of a project. Secondly, it is crucial to ensure that scientists develop news skills and learn to work in large collaborative schemes. Especially younger scientists who can easily feel lost in a big collaboration. It is important to keep all the collaborators motivated about a project and also give them space to develop new skills that may help them in their career paths.

Another important point about large-scale research infrastructures is that they offer a physical space to meet and interact with your colleagues. Though we leave in an internet-connected world with many opportunities for instantaneous communication, it is much more fruitful if you can share solutions in a collaborative way that included both physical meeting and digital communication.

All in all, it is important to continue investing in large-scale research infrastructures since they are clusters of innovation, incubators of collaboration and the way to make progress towards tackling the biggest scientific challenges.

PC: How important is to identify the stakeholders in large-scale projects from an early stage and what’s the role of ESFRI?

JW: It is absolutely critical to understand the stakeholder environment, since these big scientific projects require investments beyond what a single funding agency or research laboratory can do.

Typically they require some form of national decision making either at a level of a funding agency or some form of governmental agency. In that sense, scientists need to be connected with the decision makers who have been entrusted with those high level of budget. Decision makers are often not scientists or they can come from a different discipline making it harder to communicate your scientific case. On top of that they always need to compare different research priorities before allocating the available budget. This is why is important to be very strong in communicating not only the hard scientific case but also the benefits that stem from fundamental research.

This has been one of the main challenges for ESFRI. We tried to bring together representatives of governments around the table and set a roadmap process to identify the main research challenges in different research areas. The goal was to commonly set priorities for the European research area and progress them more efficiently.

In ESFRI, we have tried to address not just the scientific relevance of a given project but also its readiness meaning the project maturity. Our aim was twofold: to educate governments and funding agencies about the scientific priorities but also educate scientists about what funding agencies would like to see; in particular the need to have a very clear project plan. Scientists should identify sources of funding, but also evaluate the impact that research has in their own field along with its interdisciplinary impact and the socio-economic benefits that stem from fundamental research.

ESFRI is not a funding agency with its own budget but offers a certain level of advocacy presenting to governments the future scientific opportunities and investments. At the same time we provided feedback to the scientific community (especially in cases where we thought that a project is not mature enough). I hope that our work contributed to make ESFRI a rigorous body from which both the scientific community and also funding agencies could benefit.

PC: Do you think that more and more scientists have to prove the practical application of their research?

JW: This is a discussion that has gone on for many years and I remember that even when I studied physics as an undergraduate there was much debate about applied versus pure research. Today I think that this discussion has moved on in a positive direction. In my view there is no strict distinction between research carried out to answer fundamental questions and research carried out to answer some practical and perhaps pressing problems. These are different aspects of research that reflect different timescales.

Scientists should make a constant effort to communicate the basic questions of their research. It is unreasonable to expect decision makers and the public to provide funding without discussing your research and the possible outputs. From my experience, the public and the politicians are willing to understand the value of research including the training opportunities for young people.

All of these broader aspects need to be included. Let me add that scientists working in "purer" research shouldn’t be worried because of a difficulty to discuss very abstract or very technical issues. On the contrary, it should be seen as a big opportunity for some of the ongoing exciting research projects to talk about the impact that their results have had including their socio-economic benefits. We have a wide range of impact and stories of applications coming from HEP. Applications to aerospace technology – one can easily comprehend its financial benefits - to research of understanding fundamental mechanisms of biology and all the way up to gravitational waves that may never be applied but the technology developed and the interested in science that was created have high value.

The discovery of the Higgs boson has made thousands of newspaper stories and generated a high level of interest about science, inspiring possibly millions of people around the world to visit a science museum or watch a documentary. That's a major socioeconomic impact.

All in all, it is important to be enthusiastic about communicating our research to different stakeholders including the public, fellow scientists and journalists. This broader engagement of stakeholders is the way to think instead of trapping ourselves in the false choice between basic and applied research. In times of economic difficulty we need to invest more in education, training and innovation because this is how our economy can improve and lead to a brighter future.

PC: How do you see the transformation of the European research area?

JW: ESS offers a European scale solution to a problem pointed out by hundreds of scientists in national research communities. Many countries are decommissioning research reactors that supported research with neutron beams and so by pulling resources into a single new project the scale and capabilities of this project can be much larger. However each of these countries need to learn and adopt new ways of working based on international collaboration. If you like it is a shift from quantity to quality, a shift from having many competing research centres to invest in building a research centre that is better and diverse in nature. We need to learn to share resources and collaborate more. This is happening nowadays across Europe and is a major shift common across many research areas.

The main challenge in delivering this change is that it happens without a European budget for research infrastructures. H2020 has a significant budget overall, but only a small fraction of it goes to research infrastructures. Regarding ESS, about 1% has come from the EU budget - the rest comes from member states. So we need to create these collaborative projects by bringing together national funding. This is part of the way ERA is structured and is also a strength. It means that governments make a strong decision to be part of these projects and they don’t feel that their funding will be lost or that they have lost oversight of how it is used.

Presently, there are big questions as the 9th framework programme is designed, whether research infrastructures will take a bigger role. I hope they do as they are major investments. I do welcome the funding within H2020 for activities like design studies for future research infrastructure but more is needed in my opinion.

PC: What do you think about the present landscape and the future of high-energy physics?

JW: I think there are three very attractive features of today's landscape that we need to remember and communicate. We just discovered the Higgs particle and we need to study it in detail and further understand it. We have a machine in the LHC that can be upgraded substantially and will give us the tool needed to study the Higgs boson with better statistics and higher precision.

Moreover, astroparticle searches for dark matter will be complemented by collider searches. We are more and more convinced about the existence of dark matter as we accumulate more cosmological and astrophysical results, but we still have no idea what it actually is.

Finally, neutrino oscillations are a constant and very tangible reminder that there is physics beyond the standard model. Nature has been kind enough to give us three flavours of them with large mixing angles so the next generation of long baseline experiments will be able to further explore the nature of neutrinos, their mass hierarchy and probe CP violation.

The one thing which is missing is a credible plan for a new collider. So it is appropriate to explore future opportunities like a Future Circular Collider at CERN. Going sufficiently beyond the current energy scales opens great opportunities for the field. That’s how particle physics worked for many decades. In the past it has been the case with many large exploratory projects in other areas which similarly didn’t have a guarantee of new discoveries but offered deeper insights to scientific theories and opened new prospects. We need to communicate clearly the opportunities presented by a large-scale research infrastructure while also explaining that part of any technological R&D is to ensure the affordable construction and sustainable operation of such an infrastructure.

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issue 20

LINAC4 reaches target energy of 160 MeV

Panagiotis Charitos — Mon, 06 Mar 2017 12:46:26 +0000

LINAC4 reaches target energy of 160 MeV
by Jennifer Toes & Maurizio Vretenar (CERN)

Installation of the CCDTL structures of LINAC4, built and assembled in Russia (Image: CERN CDS)

CERN’s new linear accelerator (LINAC4) reached its final energy goal of 160 MeV in October 2016. The new LINAC4 will double the brightness of the beam in the PS Booster (PSB), by injecting H- beams at a higher energy than the present 50 MeV of LINAC2. This is the first step for the increase of the LHC luminosity that will be possible after completion of the LIU (LHC Injectors Upgrade) and HL-LHC (High-Luminosity LHC) projects.

Approved in 2007, LINAC4 is the realization of nearly 10 years of work. The project has involved almost all CERN Departments and services, and included substantial in-kind contributions from Russia, Poland, Spain, Italy and India.

This ultimate achievement comes after reaching 107 MeV energy in July 2016. The commissioning with beam took place in stages of increasing energy; from 3MeV in October 2013, to 12 MeV in August 2014, 50 MeV in November 2015, 100 MeV in July 2016, before ultimately bringing it up to the final goal of 160 MeV in October with the commissioning of 11 new accelerating cavities.

After optimizing the beam parameters and testing with the new high-energy beam the H- stripping equipment for the PSB, LINAC4 will begin a yearlong testing period in spring 2017. This phase will help to improve the accelerator’s reliability in preparation for taking over from LINAC2 as the first element of the LHC injection chain.

The final phase will include connecting the linac to the PSB; requiring extensive modifications to both the beam lines and to the PSB itself. This will take place during the second Long Shutdown (LS2) of the CERN accelerator complex in 2019-20.

“This achievement is a great success for all the people that contributed to the project, at CERN and outside,” said Maurizio Vretenar, LINAC4 Project Leader.

He continued: “All accelerating sections and components of the new linac performed remarkably well from the very beginning, showing the quality of the design, of the realisation and of the installation.”

Although CERN was responsible for the construction of the LINAC4, the R&D phase which preceded it was performed in close collaboration with six other laboratories as part of the first Integrating Activity project for accelerators; CARE (Coordinated Accelerator Research in Europe), which operated from 2004 to 2008.

“The collaborative environment and the support provided by this European project allowed us to go through the critical R&D phase refining the project at the level where it can be approved for construction, and helped strengthen the collaborations that evolved into our crucial in-kind contributions,” said Vretenar.

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issue 19

Triplet magnets program progressing on both sides of the Atlantic

Panagiotis Charitos — Tue, 06 Dec 2016 11:19:36 +0000

Triplet magnets program progressing on both sides of the Atlantic
by G. Ambrosio, P. Ferracin, E. Todesco (CERN)

The Nb3Sn 150 mm aperture quadrupoles MQXF, to be installed in the inner triplets around ATLAS and CMS in 2024-5, are entering a critical phase; the first two 1.5-m-long models have been manufactured and tested since the beginning of this year.

This magnet development program, carried out as a joint effort between CERN and US LARP foresees the construction and testing of five 1.5-m-long models to validate the design and fine tune the assembly features during 2014-17.

These magnets rely on the Al shell and bladder&key structure, allowing easy and fast disassembly, and a precise tuning of the coil prestress. Mechanics is a critical part in the design of these large aperture quadrupoles, featuring an 11.4 T peak field in the coils (50% larger than the peak field in the LHC dipoles operating at 6.5 TeV).

The first model, MQXFS1, was assembled in the U.S. with two CERN coils and two LARP coils, and was confirmed to fulfil performance requirements in April 2016 (see Figure 1). The performance requirements included a) reaching the ultimate current (8% higher than the nominal current of 16.4 kA), and b) reaching nominal current after a thermal cycle with at most one quench.

Figure 1: Training of MQXFS1: quenches (markers), nominal and ultime current (solid lines) and short sample limit (dotted line). (Credit: HL-LHC WP3 collaboration)

The memory after thermal cycle has outperformed expectations by exceeding ultimate current in the first quench after the thermal cycle. However, training has been slower than expected, reaching nominal current after nine quenches. After this first cycle of testing, the transverse pre-stress in the magnet was increased by 30%, to ensure a better support to the coils.

In October 2016, the second assembly was tested at FNAL, reaching 18.8 kA; which is 15% more than the nominal current, and close to 90% of the maximum theoretical performance of the magnet. Some detraining has been observed sporadically, reducing the magnet performance but keeping it always well above the nominal current.

At 4.2 K the magnets shows the ability to reach the same current, thus demonstrating the existence of a considerable margin in temperature, meaning the magnet should tolerate local heating).

The second model, MQXFS3, (MQXFS2 has been postponed to 2017) has been tested at CERN in October 2016, using a novel test station (HFM) planned to be used for the Fresca II dipole.

The magnet reached nominal current with nine quenches, as MQXFS1, but reached a current only 4% above nominal after 20 quenches. A significantly larger detraining than in MQXFS1 was observed, pushing the magnet performance well below nominal (15.0 kA).

Nonetheless, the maximal performance of 17.2 kA has been recovered after ramp rate tests. In addition, 4.2 K test, shows the same performance reached at 2.1 K and also demonstrates the existence of a considerable temperature margin.

Training of MQXFS3: quenches (markers), nominal and ultimate current (solid lines) and short sample limit (dotted line). (Credit: HL-LHC WP3 collaboration)

Work is now focussed on understanding the relationship between the quenches and the mechanical structure. As quenches are mainly located in the coil heads the longitudinal preload will be increased. Further testing after the thermal cycle is expected for the end of the year and . three additional models are foreseen in 2017.

The program will run in parallel with the development of the long coils (4.2 m in US and 7.15 m in CERN) required for the full size magnets.

“The short model program is a fundamental tool to master the design and construction of superconducting magnets, and it is even more important for a novel technology as Nb3Sn” says L. Bottura, leader of the CERN Magnet, Superconductors and Cryostat group. “If needed, we will prolong the short model program to improve our understanding and to reduce the risks in the construction of the prototypes and of the series.”

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Higher energies for ISOLDE's ion beams

Panagiotis Charitos — Tue, 21 Jun 2016 11:05:36 +0000

Higher energies for ISOLDE's radioactive ion beams
By Athena Papageorgiou Koufidou (CERN)

HIE-ISOLDE cryomodule with five copper RF cavities and one solenoid magnet assembled at the SM18 clean room. (Image: Maximilien Brice, CERN)

On 28 September, the members of the ISOLDE collaboration and major stakeholders came together in a well-deserved celebration. The first phase of the facility’s high energy and intensity upgrade (HIE-ISOLDE) is now complete and a promising future is in sight as experiments started on 9 September.

ISOLDE is the oldest facility still in operation at CERN and one of the most successful. It currently occupies a leading position in the field of radioactive ions research, producing the largest range of isotopes worldwide (over 1300 isotopes of more than 70 elements), which are used in multiple fields of physics: nuclear and atomic physics, astrophysics and fundamental interactions. A key element of ISOLDE’s success is the wealth of technical expertise it has accumulated over the decades, especially in the construction of target‑ion source units. The secret to the facility’s longevity, however, is its vibrant international collaboration and its ability to adapt to the changing physics landscape.

An impressive team is behind HIE-ISOLDE, comprising leading physicists, engineers and other experts in accelerator and beam technologies. Another essential ingredient of the workforce are early stage Marie Curie researchers, who acquire valuable skills in the area of advanced accelerator technologies, reflecting the commitment of ISOLDE on training the next generation of experts.

Taking beam energy and intensity to new heights

The production of radioactive ion beams at ISOLDE begins when a high‑energy proton beam from the PS Booster hits the facility’s target, resulting in a wide variety of reaction products. These are ionised in a surface, plasma or laser ion source and separated according to mass, producing the beam of the preferred element. An RFQ cooler and buncher lowers the temperature of the radioactive beam, thus significantly reducing emittances and energy spreads. The beam is then delivered to the low-energy experimental stations or charge‑bred and post‑accelerated at the REX accelerator.

The energy upgrade of the facility entails the construction of a superconducting linear accelerator (HIE-linac) to increase the energy of radioactive ion beams, a high energy beam transfer line to bring the beam to the experiments, as well as new beam diagnostic tools. The intensity upgrade aims to improve the target and ion source, the mass separators and charge breeder.

HIE-linac takes advantage of many cutting‑edge cryogenics and radiofrequency technologies that were originally developed for the LHC. It is equipped with superconducting radiofrequency cavities made of copper coated with niobium and operating at 101.29 MHz. They are cooled by liquid helium at 4.5 K in ultra‑high vacuum conditions. In the first phase of the energy upgrade, two high‑beta cryomodules, each containing five cavities and one superconducting solenoid magnet, were coupled to REX-linac and commissioned, thus increasing energy to 5.5 MeV per nucleon. Two more cryomodules with the same configuration will be added in the second phase, allowing beams to be accelerated to 10 MeV per nucleon; one is currently in the SM18 clean room, awaiting installation in 2017, and the other is scheduled to be assembled and installed in 2018. In the third and final phase, two low-beta cryomodules, containing six cavities and two solenoids each, will be manufactured and installed in replacement of the 7-gap and 9-gap normal conducting structures of REX, allowing beams to be decelerated to 0.3 MeV per nucleon.

The tunnel at HIE-ISOLDE now contains two cryomodules – a unique set up that marks the end of phase one for the HIE-ISOLDE installation. By Spring 2018 the project will have four cryomodules installed and will be able to reach higher energy up to 10 MeV/u. Image credits: Erwin Siesling/CERN.

After post-acceleration in HIE-linac, radioactive ions enter the high‑energy beam transfer line (HEBT), which is specially designed to preserve emittances. Then, the beam is delivered to the different experimental stations through one of two beam lines that have been in operation since 2015. A third one will be installed in early 2017.

The PS Booster upgrade and the operation of Linac 4 after LS2 are expected to increase the primary proton beam intensity at ISOLDE to 6.7 μA, allowing more exotic isotopes to be produced and more precise measurements to be obtained. However, the new experimental conditions create a set of challenges that necessitate ISOLDE’s intensity upgrade. Higher radiation levels limit the lifetime of the target, thus options for new target materials with a focus on radiation resistance are explored, while materials that are presently used undergo extensive radiation tests. The laser ion source (RILIS) has also been upgraded, improving selectivity and developing new ionisation schemes. Finally, the improvement of the mass separators will reduce isobaric contamination.

HIE-ISOLDE is currently the only next generation radioactive beam facility available in Europe, while SPIRAL-2 and SPES are still under construction,and the most advanced isotope separation on-line (ISOL) facility in the world.

New physics opportunities

HIE-ISOLDE creates a wealth of opportunities for research in many aspects of nuclear physics, astrophysics, as well as solid state physics, because it can produce a wide variety of exotic nuclei at different energies. The upgrade was welcomed by the international nuclear physics community and is in line with the recommendations of the Nuclear Physics European Collaboration Committee. Over thirty experiments have already been approved and are now at the preparation stage.

Nuclear physics

Scientists have been studying the atomic nucleus for more than 100 years, starting with Ernest Rutherford in 1911, yet many open questions remain: What is the nature of nucleonic matter? What happens if we change the energy, momentum, or temperature of the nucleus? Studying radioactive ion beams allows researchers to dig deeper into these questions, as radioactive nuclei often behave differently than stable ones and can reveal certain aspects of nuclear behaviour that their stable counterparts cannot. Accelerating these exotic nuclei to higher energies provides new physics possibilities, matching the innovative theoretical developments of the field. Many of the approved experiments plan to use Coulomb excitation, including studying the physics of super-heavy nuclei, which could reveal the next magic numbers in the very heavy systems. Other experiments will investigate transfer reactions, which may allow physicists to unravel the evolution the structure of the nucleus’s energy levels, also known as its ‘shell structure’.

Nuclear astrophysics

HIE-ISOLDE also paves the way for advances in nuclear astrophysics, a field that explores the abundance of chemical elements in the Universe. Hydrogen and helium, which were produced seconds after the Big Bang, comprise 74% and 24% of ordinary matter in the Universe, while most other elements were created inside stars much later. Astrophysicists have extensively studied how elements up to the iron region are produced, but the processes by which nuclear reactions produced elements with a higher atomic number remain largely a mystery.

Although we know that these heavy elements were created by stellar explosions and nuclear processes in stars, matching specific events to the observed distribution patterns poses a considerable challenge. The higher intensity, reduced emittance and possibility for beam deceleration at HIE-ISOLDE will enable astrophysics experiments to shed light to this problem. Some research teams plan to investigate neutron-rich nuclei that form in the crust of neutron stars, while others will study the proton-capture process that occurs during X-ray bursts or explosions of white dwarves, research the production of chemical elements in the collapsed core of supernovae and address the problem of lithium-7 abundance in the Universe.

Solid state physics

The solid state programme at ISOLDE encompasses materials science, biophysics and biochemistry, complementing nuclear physics research. It would greatly profit from the high purity and intensity ion beams of HIE-ISOLDE, as well as from the modernisation of the facility. Such research can have considerable social benefits as well, because it yields a wide range of applications — from nanomaterials and superconductors to advances in cancer diagnosis and therapy.

A flying start for HIE-ISOLDE

On 9 September, the first exotic beam at HIE-ISOLDE marked the start of operations for the new facility. The experiment investigated charge states of tin isotopes, using transfer reactions and Coulomb excitation of an 110-Sn-26+ beam, post‑accelerated to 4.5 MeV per nucleon. Besides demonstrating the experimental capabilities of the upgraded facility, this successful first run validated the technical choices of the HIE‑ISOLDE team and provided a fitting reward for eight years of rigorous R&D efforts.

Almost half a century after the first ion beams bombarded the ISOLDE target, the facility is thriving and, thanks to the energy and intensity upgrade, continues to create new opportunities for radioactive ions research. The upgrade team and the users are now looking forward to an exciting, intense period.

From biomedical applications to nuclear astrophysics, physicists at CERN’s nuclear physics facility, ISOLDE, are probing the structure of matter. To stay at the cutting edge of technology and science, further development was needed. Now, 8 years since the start of the HIE-ISOLDE project, a new accelerator is in place taking nuclear physics at CERN to higher energies. With physicists setting their sights on even higher energies of 10 MeV in the future, with four times the intensity, they will continue to commission more HIE-ISOLDE accelerating cavities and beamlines in the years to come.

You can find more information about ISOLDE here.

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HL-LHC corrector magnet tested at LASA-INFN

Jennifer Toes — Wed, 30 Mar 2016 08:20:02 +0000

HiLumi HL-LHC Sextupole corrector magnet tested at LASA-INFN
By Antonella Del Rosso (CERN)

Assembly the first sextupole corrector of the HL-LHC at the LASA Laboratory (Image: INFN-Milan)

A sextupole superferric magnet for the High Luminosity upgrade of the LHC was successfully tested earlier in March, and demonstrated it can meet the requirements of the project.

The prototype of the corrector magnet was designed and built at LASA laboratory of the Milan section of INFN. This is the first of a number of magnets developed within a CERN-INFN Collaboration Agreement for the HL-LHC project signed in 2013. The LASA laboratory will further develop high-order magnets from quadrupoles up to dodecapoles.

A superferric magnet is an iron-dominated window frame magnet. The iron shapes the overall field while the coils are made of superconducting material that is kept at cryogenic temperatures to reduce power losses to a minimum.

Though they are low-field magnets and can’t reach the high magnetic fields of the main dipole magnets, the corrector magnets are important as the high-intensity beams will have to complete hundreds of millions of turns in stable conditions before being safely dumped by the operators. The design of these magnets took into account considerations for higher reliability that is critical for the High Luminosity upgrade of the LHC.

The results achieved so far look promising and the magnets will be further tested at CERN. CERN together with INFN will continue working on the design and testing of higher-order corrector magnets before moving to the industrialization phase.

For further information on this corrector magnet you can read more here.

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Accelerating medical treatments

Sabrina El Yacoubi — Wed, 17 Sep 2014 13:54:13 +0000

Accelerating medical treatments
by Kate Kahle (CERN)

Image 1: Extract from "Novel Techniques in Proton Therapy" presented at ICTR-PHE 2012 showing the usability of different types of accelerators for proton therapy now and in the future (click image to enlarge). Image credit: Marco Schippers, PSI.
Image 2: Conceptual design for the CIEMAT/CERN smallest-possible superconducting cyclotron for medical isotopes, with a magnet only 0.8 m in diameter. Image credit: CIEMAT.

In February, the physics and medical communities came together at the ICTR-PHE 2012 conference in Geneva. Within the scientific programme, the session "Novel Technologies in Radiation Therapy" looked at the present and emerging roles of accelerators in medical treatments.

The session opened with "Novel Techniques in Proton Therapy" by Marco Schippers, PSI, who explained the need for high quality, accuracy, flexibility, intensity and energy coupled with low prices and hence reduction in size. Currently the cyclotron scores the highest for usability for proton therapy, but, in the future, linacs, FFAG and plasma wakefield may also prove usable options.

In addition, Dewi Lewis, in his highlight talk at the EuCARD annual meeting, presents "Evolution of accelerator design for medical isotopes production", linked to his recent article in the CERN Courier "Medical-isotope cyclotron designs go full circle", This article examines the role of cyclotrons in medicine over the years and discusses the interplay that has existed between industry and the accelerator laboratories. The article showcases the latest collaboration between CERN and CIEMAT, using LHC accelerator technology and expertise to help design and build the smallest-possible cyclotron using superconducting technology with a proton energy of around 8 MeV, the objective being to produce single-patient doses of radioisotopes.