Development of FLNR JINR heavy ions accelerator complex in the next 7 years

Plan for seven years accelerator development and operation are presented.     

Cryogenics for the future accelerator complex NICA at JINR

The NICA cryogenics will be based on the modernized liquid helium plant that was b uilt in the early 90’s for the superconducting synchrotron known as the Nuclotron. The main goals of the modernization are: increasing of the total refrigerator capacity from 4000 W to 8000 W at 4.5 K, making a new distribution system of liquid helium, and ensuring the shortest possible cool down time. These goals will be achieved by means of an additional 1000 l/hour helium liquefier and “satellite” refrigerators located near the accelerator rings. This report describes the design choices of the NICA, demonstrates helium flow diagrams with major new components and briefly informs of the liquid nitrogen system that will be used for shield cooling at 77 K and at the first stage of cooling down of three accelerator rings with the total length of about 1 km and “cold” mass of 290 tons.     

Status of NICA complex at JINR

New scientific program is proposed at Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna aimed a study of hot and dense baryonic matter in the wide energy region from 2 GeV/amu to √s _NN = 11 GeV, and investigation of nucleon spin structure with polarized protons and deuterons maximum energy in the c.m. 27 GeV (for protons). To realize this program the development of JINR accelerator facility in high energy physics has started. This facility is based on the existing superconducting synchrotron—Nuclotron. The program foresees both experiments at the beams extracted from the Nuclotron, and construction of ion collider—the Nuclotron-based Ion Collider fAcility (NICA).     

Development of a system for monitoring the shape,position, and intensity of the extracted relativistic ion beam at the Nuclotron-M accelerator complex at JINR

Test samples of detectors and electronics for them constructed for the purpose of monitoring the “intense” relativistic ion beams extracted from the accelerator of the Nuclotron-M accelerator complex in real time are described. The system was tested in a series of acceleration runs with deuteron beams with an intensity of up to 10¹⁰ 1/s and beams of carbon nuclei. The system allows one to perform multiple measurements of the two-dimensional distribution of the beam intensity in the plane perpendicular to it and the beam position in this plane during the beam dump and measure the two-dimensional distribution of the target irradiation dose after each beam dump.     

Concept of a coming accelerator complex and design study for heavy ions and intense protons

It is emphasized that a coming accelerator complex should be designed by wide application of beam manipulation. On the basis of this opinion, conceptual designs of two kinds of accelerator complexes of a 30 GeV/nucleon uranium-ion collider and of an intense 30 GeV proton accelerator are studied independently of each other. Moreover, it is shown from these designs that an accelerator complex with accelerator parameters common to both is possibly designed with the help of good beam manuipulation if mutual concessions of beam parameters of heavy ions and of intense protons are accepted. The optimum accelerator complex consists of at least three synchrotrons and three dc rings. The expected beam performance is 450 MeV/nucleon and 30 GeV/nucleon for uranium ions as a typical example of heavy ions, and 150 A below 2.7 GeV and 10 A below 30 GeV for intense protons.     

Photo-ionized lithium source for plasma accelerator applications

A photo-ionized lithium source is developed for plasma acceleration applications. A homogeneous column of lithium neutral vapor with a density of 2×10^15-3 is confined by helium gas in a heat-pipe oven. A UV laser pulse ionizes the vapor. In this device, the length of the neutral vapor and plasma column is 25 cm. The plasma density was measured by laser interferometry in the visible on the lithium neutrals and by CO₂ laser interferometry on the plasma electrons. The maximum measured plasma density was 2.9×10 ¹⁴ cm^-3, limited by the available UV fluence (≈83 mJ/cm²), corresponding to a 15% ionization fraction. After ionization, the plasma density decreases by a factor of two in about 12 μs. These results show that such a plasma source is scaleable to lengths of the order of 1 m and should satisfy all the requirements for demonstrating the acceleration of electrons by 1 GeV in a 1-GeV/m amplitude plasma wake     

Vacuum requirements for the booster of NICA accelerator complex

This paper presents the results of a calculation of ¹⁹⁷Au³²⁺ ion beam losses as they interact with atoms and molecules of residual gas in the acceleration chamber of the booster vacuum system of the NICA accelerator complex [1].     

BNCT中子源用RFQ加速器

 分析了加速器作为硼中子俘获治疗(BNCT)中子源的优势,提出以射频四极场（RFQ）加速器作为BNCT用中子源的首选机型。对该RFQ的参数进行了选择,利用质子轰击锂靶近阈反应产生的前冲中子束能散低、散角小的优势,设定RFQ最终能量为1.9 MeV。采用“匹配均温”设计方法进行了此强流质子RFQ的束流动力学设计,并对设计方案进行了传输模拟,在入口归一化均方根发射度为0.25 mm·mrad、流强为100 mA时,束流传输效率为99.3％。选择合适厚度的锂靶,经过整形即可得到满足BNCT治疗需要的中子束。     

Quench detector for superconducting elements of the NICA accelerator complex

A universal quench detector is designed for new superconducting accelerators of the NICA accelerator complex under construction at JINR. The presence of a two-channel digital input permits the detector to be used both for comparing voltage across two nearest magnets by a bridge scheme and for separating a resistive constituent of the voltage across a controlled element.     

Production of polarized ions by photoionisation

The photoproduction of polarized ions is investigated theoretically. The alignment of photoions is expressed in terms of a possible initial atomic polarization, the polarization of the radiation and of reduced transition matrix elements. In particular it is shown that an ion alignment can result from unpolarized target atoms exposed to unpolarized light.     

Status of the electron accelerator for radioanalytical studies at tohoku university

We introduce the status of the 300 MeV electron linear accelerator used for radioanalytical studies at Tohoku University. In the accelerator facility, several scientific programs for producing radioactivity have been performed in several fields, such as photon-activation analysis, nuclear chemistry, hot-atom chemistry, and radioactive tracers for material science. First, we introduce an outline of the facility and the irradiation system for producing radioactivity. Then, several topics in these fields are explored in detail.     

Status of GISELE: a resonant ionization laser ion source for the production of radioactive ions at GANIL

Laser ion sources are in use extensively to ionize the nuclear reaction products at many on-line radioactive ion beam facilities. They have proven to be reliable and to combine good production efficiencies with chemical selectivity. A Laser ion source is currently under development for the SPIRAL2 project at GANIL. A status update of this project called GISELE is presented.     

Photoproduction with polarized photons as a source of polarized gluon jets

We show that, according to QCD, the direct Compton process γq→qg in polarized photoproduction leads to strongly polarized gluon jets. We also show that this process is expected to dominate in the reaction γp→π⁺ + opposite side jet + X. The study of the opposite side jet will give direct evidence for the spin of the gluon.     

Booster synchrotron of NICA accelerator complex

NICA is a new accelerator complex being constructed at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research; the main task of this complex is to perform collider experiments for ion beams up to uranium with energies of up to 3.5 × 3.5 GeV/nucleon. This complex includes an electron string ion source, a 6 MeV/nucleon linear accelerator, a booster, the Nuclotron, and a collider with an average luminosity of 10²⁷ cm² s^?1. The main tasks of the booster are to accumulate up to 4 × 10^{9 197}Au³²⁺ ions, to accelerate to 600 MeV/nucleon (sufficient enough energy for completely stripping nuclei), to reduce the requirements of vacuum conditions for the Nuclotron, and to form the necessary beam emittance using an electron cooling system. The specific features of the NICA booster and the requirements for the basic systems of the synchrotron and their parameters are presented in this paper.     

Evaluation of effective source position for local linear accelerator and inserts

All types of treatment planning systems need some input measured beam data. Such data differ in type and number depending on the model of electron beam algorithm used inside. In addition to the number of percentage depth dose (%DD) and cross beam profiles, the effective source surface distance parameter SSD_eff was also recommended to be measured and transferred to the planning system. Output measurements were carried out using 0.6cc cylindrical Farmer type ion chamber placed in water phantom at depth of dose maximum, in Radiat. Phys. Dep., Malmö Hospital, Lund University, Sweden. Results were collected for all available energies combined with both applicators and inserts on a Varian Clinac 2100C. SSD_eff was determined from the ionization measurements using equation given by Khan et al. (1991). Comparing the results with those obtained by Roback et al. (1995) on a similar Varian Clinac 2100C, it was found that the deviation of SSD_eff was 7.5% for combination of energies, field sizes, and inserts except at 6 MeV. The variations of SSD_eff than the nominal SSD reflect the importance of corrections against air gap present in irregular clinical situations. SSD_eff should be measured during commissioning of both accelerator or/and local treatment-planning computer. Inserts used in measurements should be from the same material and thickness as that are used in clinical work.     

IC-100 accelerator complex for scientific and applied research

Industrial production of nuclear filters has been implemented at the IC-100 cyclotron complex of the Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research. After the complete upgrade, the cyclotron was equipped with the superconducting ECR ion source and the system of external axial beam injection. The implantation complex was equipped with the special transportation channel with the beam scanning system and the setup for irradiation of polymer films. Intense beams of heavy ions Ne, Ar, Fe, Kr, Xe, I, and W with an energy of ～1 MeV/nucleon were obtained. the properties of irradiated crystals were studied, different polymer films were irradiated, and several thousands of square meters of track membranes with pore densities varying in a wide range were produced. Other scientific and applied problems can be solved at the cyclotron complex.     

Proposal for an efficient source of polarized photoelectrons from semiconductors

It is expected that a cesiated semiconductor such as GaAs excited with circularly polarized photons of energy close to the band gap would be a very bright and intense source of polarized electrons. Under easily attainable experimental conditions it is predicted that one could obtain a current of 10^?3–10^?4 A with an electronic polarization close to 50 per cent.