Educational activities with a tandem accelerator

Abstract

Selected experiments in fundamental physics have been proposed for many years at the Tandem Accelerator of the University of Napoli ‘Federico II’s Department of Physics as a part of a one-semester laboratory course for graduate students. The aim of this paper is to highlight the educational value of the experimental realization of the nuclear reaction 19F(p,α)16O. With the purpose of verifying the mass–energy equivalence principle, different aspects of both classical and modern physics can be investigated, e.g. conservation laws, atomic models, nuclear physics applications to compositional analysis, nuclear cross-section, Q-value and nuclear spectroscopic analysis.

Nuclear physics experiments with a medical cyclotron

“…As an example, tandem accelerators deliver ion beams with energy resolution of 0.1%, current up to some particle nanoampere (pnA) and beam spot of a few mm in the position of interest. [1][2] The Bern medical cyclotron is equipped with an IBA Cyclone 18/18. It is used for two main scientific activities: 3 1) production of the 18 F radioisotope for Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging and 2) research activities focused on the production of new radioisotopes 4 and on studies of new beam monitoring and diagnostics systems, new detectors and dosimeters.…”