PIPERADE: A Penning-trap isobar separator for the DESIR low-energy facility of SPIRAL2

Abstract

Abstract. A Penning-trap isobar separator is currently under construction at CENBG (Bordeaux, France) and MPIK (Heidelberg, Germany) for a future installation at the SPI-RAL2/DESIR facility. This device aims at purifying the radioactive ion beams from undesired species, in order to deliver highly pure samples of exotic nuclei to the different set-ups which will be installed in the DESIR hall. The present manuscript describes the context and the motivations to build such a system, the targeted characteristics, and the studies to find an efficient purification method for large samples of isobaric species. The DESIR facility at SPIRAL2The last decades have seen an extremely rapid development of Radioactive Ion Beam (RIB) facilities allowing important progress concerning the knowledge of the atomic nucleus. Exploring new territory of nuclei with extreme N/Z ratios allowed the discovery of new structures and behaviors of the nucleus, thus refining the theoretical nuclear models originally developed from observations on long-lived nuclei [1]. The future SPIRAL2 facility [2] at GANIL in Caen, France, will push the limits further and allow experiments with nuclei which are currently inaccessible. The DESIR hall will be the installation dedicated to low-energy studies and will host experimental set-ups for decay spectroscopy, laser spectroscopy and trap-based experiments, in order to study nuclear ground and excited state properties. Thanks to these three complementary techniques, key observables of nuclei far from stability will be accessible, allowing to answer many of the open questions concerning the nuclear forces, the processes of nucleosynthesis as well as testing the Standard Model. The DESIR facility will be equipped with different beam lines which will receive low-energy beams (10-60 keV) from: (i) the existing SPIRAL1 facility, (ii) the SPIRAL2 production building using neutron-and deuteron-induced fission, deep-inelastic and fusion evaporation reactions and (iii) the super separator spectrometer S 3 where neutron-deficient and superheavy elements will be produced via in-flight fusion evaporation reactions. The combination of the complementary in-flight and ISOL methods and of many different reaction mechanisms using unprecedented high intensities will make the DESIR facility a powerful and versatile low-energy facility. The construction of the DESIR hall will begin in 2016. a

Nuclear mass measurements with radioactive ion beams

“…However, multiple traps have been installed about the world in addition to those described above. Other successful Penning trap programs and those planned or under construction include the Florida State University trap, 59 SMILETRAP, 60 MATS, 61 PIPERADE, 62 WITCHTRAP, 63 REXTRAP, 64 TRIGA-TRAP, 65 the Mainz trap, 66 HITRAP, 67 PENTATRAP, 68 MLLTRAP, 69 the Lanzhou trap, 70 and the RIKEN trap. 71 These are dedicated to various studies involving the measurements of nuclear masses as well as fundamental properties of matter and antimatter.…”