accelerating-news-arc.web.cern.ch - issue 9

Latest developments in medical physics research

Margarita Synanidi — Thu, 20 Nov 2014 16:24:15 +0000

Latest developments in medical physics research
by Livia Lapadatescu (CERN)

ICTR-PHE 2014 took place in the International Conference Centre in Geneva (CICG).
Image credit: ICTR-PHE 2014.

Researchers from around the world gathered in Geneva to discuss the latest developments in cancer diagnosis and treatment during ICTR-PHE 2014 (International Conference on Translational Research in Radio-Oncology and Physics for Health in Europe), held between 10 and 14 February.

The 5-day conference covered a variety of topics from radiobiology, nuclear medicine, detectors and imaging, to host and tumour immunity, radio-therapeutic control of tumours, and clinical trials in hadron therapy. The involvement of CERN in medical physics research was highlighted in the talk by Steve Myers, recently appointed Head of CERN’s Medical Application Programme, and in the public lecture by Ugo Amaldi: Physics is beautiful and useful.

The development of compact and cost-effective accelerators for medical applications, the production of isotopes for research, and the establishment of BioLEIR at CERN were also addressed during the conference. Converting LEIR (The Low Energy Ion Ring) into a biomedical experimental facility will help investigate the effect of different ions on cancer cells, test innovative particle detectors and perform accurate nuclear fragmentation studies. The ISOLDE facility will provide beams to produce radioisotopes for medical applications, in the framework of the CERN MEDICIS project.

The need of uniting different disciplines: physics, chemistry, biology, medicine and even computer science (which could help in analyzing large databases) to develop better treatment and diagnosis for cancer was highlighted throughout the conference. Rendez-vous in 2016 for the next edition of ICTR-PHE.

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ICTR-PHE 2014

cancer therapy

accelerators

medical applications

issue 9

A step towards Next Generation Magnets

Margarita Synanidi — Thu, 20 Nov 2014 16:20:30 +0000

A step towards Next Generation Magnets
by Luca Bottura (CERN)

A Roebel cable prototype, inserted in a sample holder and ready for test at low temperature and high field in the CERN FRESCA test facility. Image credit: J. Fleiter, CERN

The Future Magnets, Work Package 10 of EuCARD-2 is exploring the use of High Temperature Superconductors (HTS) materials in future accelerator magnets: YBCO and BSCCO. Both YBCO and BSCCO were found to have not only a high critical temperature, but also a very high critical field, exceeding 100 T. This is what makes them especially interesting for high field accelerator magnet applications.

Following an evaluation performed by the EuCARD2 WP10 team, and the associated laboratories in the US and Japan, it was decided that the European program would focus on YBCO tapes, assembled in Roebel bars or, as an option, stacked tapes. YBCO is a material produced by one of the industrial partners of EuCARD-2 (Bruker HTS), and has potential for use both in very high field applications beyond the scope of WP10, such as Nuclear Magnetic Resonance magnets, as well as power applications such as Fault Current Limiters or high current power transmission cables. Accelerator magnets require high current, and the Roebel bar is a way devised by KIT to assemble multiple YBCO tapes in a high current transposed conductor. Samples of such conductors were already tested at CERN at cryogenic conditions (4.2 K) and intense field (10 T), showing the desired high current carrying capability. The EuCARD2 WP10 will produce samples of YBCO Roebel bars in the coming months.

As for the alternate material, EuCARD2 makes a significant contribution by providing the precursor powders necessary for the production of the BSCCO-2212 superconducting wire.

The question for the coil cross section is yet open for both Roebel bars and Rutherford cables; the magnet geometry for making the optimal use of the current carrying capacity of the superconductor, and respecting the engineering limits of the materials, is not necessarily the same.

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CERN prepares for Future Circular Collider Study

Margarita Synanidi — Thu, 20 Nov 2014 16:16:18 +0000

CERN prepares for Future Circular Collider Study
by Michael Benedikt and Frank Zimmermann (CERN)

Fig, left: Participants of the Future Circular Collider kick-off Meeting, University of Geneva, Switzerland Image credit: CERN.
Fig2, right: Sketch of a future 80 to 100-km long tunnel in the Geneva area, allowing for a 100-TeV energy-frontier proton collider and also, as possible intermediate step, a high-luminosity e+e- Higgs factory. Image credit: CERN.

More than 350 world experts in accelerators and particle physics, including several laboratory directors, came together at the University of Geneva for 4 days from 12 to 15 February 2014, to launch a future circular collider (FCC) study, based on a new 80 to 100-km circular tunnel.

The FCC study scope comprises a frontier 100-TeV proton (and heavy-ion) collider [formerly called VHE-LHC], a high-luminosity e+e- (H, Z, W, and ttbar) factory as potential intermediate step [formerly called TLEP], and also a hadron-lepton collider option [formerly called VLHeC]. The goal of the study is to deliver a Conceptual Design Report (CDR) together with a cost review at the time of the next European Strategy Update (2018).

The goals of the kick-off meeting were to introduce the FCC study, to discuss study scope and organization, as well to prepare and to establish global collaborations.

After two days of plenary sessions, which surveyed the physics case, scope, plan, international situation and design starting points of the FCC, seven parallel sessions provided space for feedback, numerous additional presentations and lively international discussions. Worldwide collaboration in all areas – physics, experiments and accelerators – was found to be essential to reach the level for a CDR by 2018. Key R&D areas for the FCC, such as superconducting high-field magnets and Superconducting Radio-Frequency systems (SRF), are of general interest and relevant for many other applications. Significant R&D investments in these areas have been made over the past decade(s) and are still in progress, for example, in the framework of the LHC and High-Luminosity LHC.

Institutes around the world are now invited to join the global FCC effort and to submit non-committing written “expressions of interest” with regard to specific contributions by the end of May 2014.

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FCC

event

issue 9

First pre-series sextupole for the SESAME storage ring

Margarita Synanidi — Thu, 20 Nov 2014 16:07:44 +0000

First pre-series sextupole for the SESAME storage ring
by Attilio Milanese (CERN)

First SESAME sextupole pre-series undergoing magnetic measurements in the ISR tunnel at CERN. The electric and hydraulic connections are in test configuration. Image credit: CERN

In November 2013, CERN has completed the first assembly of a pre-series sextupole for the SESAME storage ring, within the CESSAMag European project. This is indeed the first magnet for the new synchrotron light source in construction in Jordan.

The magnetic design of the sextupole has been finalized at CERN on the basis of the initial proposal of SESAME. The compact magnet is actually multi-purpose, incorporating – on top of the main sextupolar field – three correctors, namely the horizontal / vertical dipole and a skew quadrupole. Since the aperture (75 mm diameter) is comparable to the length (iron length 100 mm), the optimization of the pole tip geometry was carried out directly in 3D. A peculiar feature from the magnetic viewpoint is the unconventional choice of avoiding any end pole chamfering, while still minimizing the first allowed harmonic. This was obtained by introducing a careful bias in the 2D design, that cancels out in 3D due to edge effects. This simplifies the manufacture without compromising on the field quality. Indeed a magnetic measurement on the pre-series confirmed the simulations, with a first allowed harmonics of 0.4∙10-4 at a reference radius of 24 mm.

This pre-series sextupole validates the design and opens the way for the 64 units needed for the SESAME storage ring. Contracts for the main components are on-going in Europe, whereas for the final assembly and testing options in Cyprus and Pakistan are currently being finalized.

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Explore accelerator applications with EuCARD-2

Margarita Synanidi — Thu, 20 Nov 2014 14:38:33 +0000

Explore accelerator applications with EuCARD-2
by Rob Edgecock (HUD)

Spot scanning gantry (Gantry 2), which was designed specifically to enable treatment of moving tumours with scanned beams. Image credit: PSI.

Work Package 4 (AccApplic) of the EuCARD2 project is a Network investigating existing and possible new applications of particle accelerators. The aim is to find applications that could benefit from accelerators and techniques developed for research activities, particularly in Particle Physics.

More than 30,000 accelerators are in use around the World for applications in the areas of healthcare, the environment, industry, energy and security. Together, these are responsible for nearly $0.5T/year of economic activity. Although the accelerators used for many of these applications are very well suited to the task, there are cases in which improvements in performance are possible or work is required to reduce the size or cost of the accelerator or there are particular problems to be solved. The AccApplic Network will be studying these cases.

As a Network, the main method of doing this will be to bring together experts to discuss the problems and possible solutions in workshops. The purpose is to initiate collaborations to further address the problems. The first such workshop, on Modern Hadron Therapy Gantry Developments, has already taken place and the summarizing report is now available. The next two are upcoming, on Accelerators for Accelerator Driven Systems and Neutron Production and BNCT. Further workshops on muon production for energy, materials and security applications and accelerators for flue gas, water and food treatment are also planned.

If you would like to participate in the Network or have suggestions for other workshops, please contact the coordinator, Rob Edgecock.

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EuCARD-2

Accelerator Applications

hadron therapy

issue 9

RF drive system for MICE installed at the ICTF

Margarita Synanidi — Thu, 20 Nov 2014 14:15:26 +0000

RF drive system for MICE installed at the ICTF
by Kevin Ronald, (University of Strathclyde), Andrew Moss (Daresbury Lab), Tim Stanley (Rutherford Appleton Lab) for the MICE Collaboration

Fig. 1: Installation of the triode amplifier, visible are (a) the 3” feedline from the preamplifier on the mezzanine above, (b) the preamplifier test load, (c) the final stage amplifier assembly and (d) the 6” output line from the final stage. Image credit: TIARA/MICE.

Ionisation cooling is required to reduce the emittance of a muon beam rapidly for application in future accelerators for neutrino factories and muon colliders. The first RF power amplifier, developed under TIARA Work Package 7, by Daresbury Laboratory working with the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL), the University of Strathclyde and Imperial College has been installed and tested at the Ionisation cooling Test Facility (ICTF).

Fig 2: Engineering model illustrating the test installation of the 1st Amplifier system in the RF power station at the ICTF, the preamplifier tetrode (a), SSPA and Source are on the mezzanine with the power supplies (b), the tall triode final stage (c) is installed between the main floor and the mezzanine. Image credit: TIARA/MICE.

The first of the four compact amplifiers for the Muon Ionisation Cooling Experiment (MICE), which recently achieved the required performance of 2MW peak power in 1ms pulses at 1Hz has now been installed in the Ionisation Cooling Test Facility at RAL. This required the establishment of all necessary services in the limited space available for the RF power stations. The amplifier has been tested to the limits of the available RF loads and exhibited the same performance characteristics as achieved in the tests previously conducted at Daresbury. This is a major step in preparing the infrastructure for MICE. Through synergy with a US NSF-MRI programme at Mississippi, the components required for the distribution network developed under the TIARA project have been procured, and some parts used in the recent tests. The support of TIARA, the UK STFC, the US NSF and e2v technologies is gratefully acknowledged.

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Pile-up management at HL-LHC and Crab-Kissing

Margarita Synanidi — Thu, 20 Nov 2014 13:44:54 +0000

Pile-up management at HL-LHC and Crab-Kissing
by Stephane Fartoukh (CERN) with Agnes Szeberenyi (CERN)

Crab-kissing collision to level the luminosity and strongly mitigate the pile-up density at HL-LHC.
Image credit: S. Fartoukh (CERN)

The HiLumi LHC Design Study investigates novel technologies and concepts to extend the discovery potential of the LHC. The overall scheme targets an integrated luminosity higher by a factor of 10 with respect to the LHC, but without compromising on the quality of the data delivered, both in terms of total number of interactions per bunch crossing (pile-up), but also their line density along the luminous region. A novel collision scheme might lead the way to succeed.

This so-called crab-kissing scheme is complementary to the baseline crab-crossing scheme already in use. It assumes, however, that additional crab-cavities are installed in order to achieve a bunch rotation in the plane perpendicular to the crossing plane (the so-called parallel separation plane). In this way the two beams collide with a side-slip angle in one of the two transverse planes, for levelling the collision time and therefore the luminosity, while mitigating the interaction rate at the centre of the luminous region, and therefore spreading out the events more efficiently over the luminous region.

Assuming a double harmonic radio-frequency system for the HL-LHC, as already planned for other purposes, the longitudinal bunch distribution can be made more uniform. Then combined with the crab-kissing scheme, a pile up density of only 0.5-0.6 event /mm is within reach for the HL-LHC, which would definitely maximise the efficiency of the new detector and might even be partly used to further increase peak and integrated luminosity of the HL-LHC

The connection between pile-up density and crab-cavity via the crab-kissing scheme, gives an additional boost to this very challenging RF device which remains a keystone of the HL-LHC project. First beam dynamics analysis were reported at the 6th crab-cavity workshop CC13, validating the soundness of the proposal, in particular in terms of beam-beam effect.

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New video introducing EuCARD-2

Margarita Synanidi — Thu, 20 Nov 2014 13:30:38 +0000

New video introducing EuCARD-2
by Agnes Szeberenyi (CERN)

Maurizio Vretenar presents the EuCARD-2 project. Image credit: EuCARD-2, CERN

Watch the recently launched video that gives a short introduction to the EuCARD-2 project and its mission to develop particle accelerators of the 21st century.

The project gives the opportunity for a new generation of scientists to be trained in an advanced technological and international environment. "We want to develop a new generation of accelerators that allow not only scientists to profit, but also society – in medicine and industry," says project coordinator Maurizio Vretenar of CERN.

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