Minutes from the ISOLDE Physics Group meeting on August 27, 2014
No comments to the minutes from the ISOLDE Physics Group Meeting on August 20, 2014.

Technical news: 
GPS:
- Lead target installed in the GPS. It’s 2 years old but expected to behave nicely. 
- The Slovak team started using this target for a run on LA1 from Friday 22nd to Wednesday 27th .
- Very few interruptions. When their tape broke Monday afternoon they followed procedure to open the tape station by calling RP and the chamber was open with RP presence on Tuesday. 
-  RP piquet should not be called by users, only by the engineer-in-charge (as it was done in the above case) 
- IDS took over central beam line on Wednesday afternoon. They run until Friday morning when solid state physics starts. 
- No new issues with GPS. Coupling clamps still make the vacuum trip when the controllers think they are open. It could be a problem with the potentiometer, which is planned to be exchanged.
- Reminder for users: the GPS slit can be moved into remove neighboring masses. It cannot be used when beams far in mass are to be delivered to GLM or GHM. The GPS slit is accessible in the beam diagnostics application, in one of the GPS wire grid apps. For details of operation, ask the engineer in charge. It is recommended that for spectroscopy measurements they should be left in.
- Parallel to the Slovak run there was a run at the GLM to measure the yield of neutron deficient mercury isotopes. It was related to a letter of intent I152 for a future proposal on hyperfine structure measurements with RILIS.
- The transmission to the ISOLDE tape station at CA0 became very low when beam was transported in parallel to GLM. Transport was redone and the problem was fixed. The origin of this problem was not found.

HRS:
- ISOLTRAP finished measurements of 129-131Cd.
- Transmission through the second separator has been now improved to 70%
- Concerning reports that FC490 reads 2-3 times more than the other Fc’s: the beam is not focused in the faraday cup before ISCOOL, so the current measured there is not reliable. Concerning transmission through ISCOOL, Richard Catherall considers that the ISCOOL is commissioned but work will continue when Tim comes back from vacations.
- The magnet cycling seems to be reliable now (although still slow). Erwin and a new software expert are going to cycle the magnet many times in search for remaining problems. When cycling the HRS magnet check if the teslameter (close to the ISOLDE tape station) and the software give the same value.
- Proton scan on target on Friday morning (previous scan was on the neutron converter).
- RILIS tests on Sunday to Monday morning on mercury to compare the Pb target in GPS with UCx target.
- Alex Gottberg reports on the results of the tests of the new VADIS ion source. Tests happened on Friday, Monday and Tuesday. Resonant laser ionization in the plasma ion-source cavity. The ionization efficiency with lasers only and lasers + plasma look good. The test indicate that laser in-source spectroscopy on Hg should be possible. Mercury isotopes are now a new ISOLDE element that can be ionized with RILIS IS563 report
- New Slovak TATRA tape system installed at LA1. It’s based on the ATRAC tape standard. It’s a single reel endless loop tape. It is driven by a single step motor. Used by Ed Zganjar and John Wood at ORNL.
- They used 3 HPGe connected to XIA Pixie16 digital data acquisition. They took 15 kHz per crystal, to avoid summing effects.
- They concentrated on 183Hg, but run also on 185, 181Hg.
- No conversion electron detector was used, due to the late delivery and problems with the response of the detector while at ISOLDE.
- High statistics are required because of the high level density.
- There are no estimates yet of the observed yield.

IDS: 
- IDS transmission has been optimized to 70% from LA1 value to IDS FC. Luis Fraile comments that the beam shape is not optimal in any case.
- Current experiment is the beta-decay of 207-208Hg.
- Beam was scheduled to finish on Sunday
Solid state physics:
- Collections on ice for diverse applications.
- It will be done at the end of the IDS run, partly with beam voltage at 10 kV.
- The collected samples will be transported and used in the SSP lab in b. 275.

Miscellanea: 
- Magda Kowalska will be gone from August 30th to lunchtime of September 8 th. Karl and Elisa will cover her duties.
- PS Booster should be now ready to deliver full intensity of proton beam (3.3e13 ppp). This will be tested on Friday.
- Pascal will be the operator in charge until Tuesday 2nd, Miguel after that.

Safety:
- The hall has been partitioned now, so users need to enter through the back door. The dosimeter access in the front can be still done with ISOHALL access . It will be soon changed to ISO-works. The HIE-ISOLDE worksite should be only accessed to move equipment in and outside working hours. Maria reminds the audience that the partition of the hall is a unique situation, so we should follow the rules to avoid wearing helmets and safety shoes everywhere in the hall.
- Use the ADAMS system to check if you are missing courses: www.cern.ch/adams .
- The third electrical incident to an ISOLDE physicist in 4 months happened over the weekend – the person worked on a open device which was still connected). As a result the ISOLDE physics group came under an even closer eye of the CERN safety authorities. The safety officers requested to have tidier workspaces and safety equipment (e.g. insulating matt) and follow basic safety rules (E.g. do not use the hall as a working place only for setting up and data taking.). As announced in July – all ISOLDE physicists need to pass at least the online electrical awareness course before accessing ISOLDE. However, in order to be able to work with electronic equipment the 2-day CERN electrical habilitation is going to be enforced. Magda and Maria will have the last say on letting fellows and locals with the right courses work on electrical equipment. For a tidier, quieter electrical work please use the electronics workshop at b275. The key is inside the key cabinet in the control room. However, call RP for moving equipment from ISOLDE to b275.
- Non-local ISOLDE users should not take radioactive sources or work with open electrical equipment.
- The Hg collections start on Wednesday, once the 1st collections and move procedure is approved by RP, RP will create a permit for Karl and SSP users to move the samples out to b275 until Monday morning.
- Every room in 275 was checked with RP for tidiness and general organization.
- Experiments cannot run before the safety clearance is granted.
- The next meeting will take place at the same time Wednesday next week (2pm, 4th September 2014)

Minutes taken by MMF