Future plans at ISOLDE

Abstract

The CERN ISOLDE facility has operated for over 30 years delivering beams of exotic ions to an ever-growing user community. The facility went through a major upgrade in the early 1990s with the move from the 600 MeV synchrocyclotron to the 1 GeV PS-Booster proton synchrotron. This was followed by a primary proton beam energy up grade to 1.4 GeV in 1999. Lately, an important step forward was taken with the start of the REX-ISOLDE experiment for charge breeding and post acceleration of exotic ions. CERN has recently decided on a consolidation project for the facility to assure that the required number of shifts can be delivered in the future. An overview will be given of the ongoing consolidation and development programme and its implications on the physics programme, in particular the REX-ISOLDE post accelerator experiment. An important parameter for a better yield of very exotic elements is the primary proton beam intensity, beam energy and time structure. The possible short-term improvements of, in particular, beam intensity will be discussed in some detail. While the main effort at CERN today goes towards the completion of the LHC, some resources have been found for accelerator R&D. A possible project is a new high intensity proton source at CERN, the Superconducting Proton Linac (SPL), which could open the door to the construction of a next-generation radioactive beam facility. The possible primary beam characteristics and some design considerations and their implications for such a facility will be discussed. Some ideas for the facility itself, such as the use of antiprotons and muons as new probes, production of a neutrino beam from stored radioactive ions and a preliminary design for a low energy storage ring, will be presented.

ISOLTRAP: An on-line Penning trap for mass spectrometry on short-lived nuclides

“…In 1992 it was moved to its present place at the PS-Booster [28,62]. Since the last major ISOLTRAP status report in 1996 [14], there have been many changes in the setup as well as improvements in its performances.…”

Advanced target concepts for production of radioactive ions and neutrino beams

“…As an example the principles and electron neutrino intensities which may be obtained from such an ISOL target station optimised for production of 6 He as proposed by…”

“…In Table 1 the parameters permitted by present day technology are given for the isotope 6 He precursor of ν e that present technology allow to use today somewhat lower yield of the ν e precursor 18 Ne may also be obtained from spallation of a MgO target. In addition the table shows the 6 He expected to be reached after successful development work planned by EURISOL.…”

“…Intense beams of both flavours of electron neutrinos (beta beams) may be obtained from short-lived beta emitting nuclei accelerated and stored in the existing CERN accelerator complex [6].…”

“…It will be shown that the major parts of this target could also serve as an efficient spallation neutron source for production of 6 He and fission products in the two-step converter-target concept.…”