Minutes from the ISOLDE Physics Group meeting on April 22^nd, 2015

No comments to the minutes of the PG meeting held last week.

Technical news

• GPS:
  
  • Target test for ⁸B production: Carbon nanotubes with Sulfur fluoride for extraction.
    • Successful extraction and identification in the tape station (beta)as atomic BF, BF₂, and BF₃, study in LA1 in the form of BF₂ (alphas, g-511)
    • Possible identification as atomic Boron.
    • Identification tried at ISOLTRAP but not observed as atomic, too much contamination with molecular beams.
  • The GPS vistar software shows intermittent problems. Under investigation.
  • FC490 still shows readout problems, overshoots and values twice as high as neighboring cups. Under investigation.
  • The scanners refresh rate was very slow over the weekend (~30 s). A bug has been found and a correction implemented for cups, to be soon implemented for scanners.
  • A small leak has been found in the below connecting to the Ar inlet. The leak is so small that the repair has been postponed until next shutdown.
  • The automatic mass scans will be uncoupled from INCA after the last one crashed due to the large number of steps required that filled the memory.
• Users report that the working sets are not refreshed if the equipment acquisition software crashes. The system only acknowledges the crash when trying to send a new value
• HRS:
  
  • COLLAPS successfully run stable beam from HRS last week.
• RILIS:
  
  • The MCP will be placed at CB0.
• RFQ/ISCOOL:
  
  • The injection electrodes are still being polished and will be soon replaced and tested.
• REX/HIE-ISOLDE:
  
  • Vacuum and water tested and no leaks found in the entire REX part of the accelerator.
  • RFQ amplifiers tested successfully.
  • The magnets of the HIE-ISOLDE part will be covered to be protected.

Schedule

• Small delay in installing HRS target for next week’s schedule. See http://isolde.web.cern.ch/experiments/schedules/weekly-schedule for more info.

IS598 report

• Scientific goal: measure the charge radii of neutron deficient and neutron rich Hg isotopes.
  
  • The measurement of neutron deficient Hg will explore shape coexistence in the region
  •  In the neutron rich region the charge radius transition observed at N=126 will be investigated.
• The run will make use of the Windmill and ISOLTRAP for isotope identification.
• Windmill was installed at LA2 and passed safety inspection at the end of last week.

B508

• The group leader asks the group to check and report wether the cleaning service of B508 is performed weekly.
• New telephones have been ordered for B508. To be installed soon.

B275

• Electricity and internet were down last week. The electricity and internet connection cupboards boxes were difficult to access due to equipment stashed in the way. The group leader, TSO of the building, asks to keep that area clear for interventions

AOB

-Nine isolde projects were assigned summer students from the member state program this year. The group leader reminds the project supervisors to confirm with the students their travel plans.

-The next meeting will take place at 14:00 Wednesday next week (29^th April 2015) followed by a seminar by Alan Howard on “The 23Na(alpha,p)26Mg cross section at astrophysically relevant energies”.                                                                                                                              

Minutes taken by MMF