Minutes from the ISOLDE physics group meeting

No comments to last week’s physics group meeting minutes

Technical news

• HRS:

• Target broke the previous week while setting up for tests on the quartz line.
• Foreseen replacement of the broken target with a molten lead target for Hg beamtime on either Friday or Monday

• GPS:

Fully dedicated:

To the set-up of the beam commissioning and delivery of the first radioactive beam to MINIBALL using HIE ISOLDE

• RILIS:

• Last week the protons scan was done and the RILIS lasers were set up in very short time for Zn, a day and a half earlier
• In good shape, runs more smoothly than expected: less deterioration on the optics observed than anticipated, perhaps due to the slight change in the first step of excitation.

• HIE ISOLDE/REX:

• REX is running well
• Various tests were made to inject stable beam to REX on Wednesday and Thursday morning
• An important and nice week for ISOLDE due to HIE ISOLDE’s first radioactive beam last Thursday

Various issues for running HIE ISOLDE, we are still in limited running capability to working hours (from 9.00 to 19.00). The lasers don’t have the man power to run 24 hours.

Moreover, cavities in the cryomodule can only be powered for ~7hours.

• Run smoothly without any change
• A few hiccups appeared after the weekend.

• Friday night there was a software upgrade for the machine protection
• On Monday morning they have to start from the scratch to get back where they were on Friday evening

• MINIBALL:

• ¹² C beam was given overnight to the MINIBALL setup.
• Thursday afternoon, 1 day in advance, the first radioactive beam

⁷⁴ Zn ₂₅₊ was sent all the way to the MINIBALL setup, energy estimated at 4 MeV per nucleon, value taken from the magnets.

• The yields at MINIBALL are as expected. The transmission through MINIBALL is not yet determined.

• General ISOLDE:

• Tuesday morning there was a big RF problem with LINAC2. The beam was lost for several hours.

• During this time an electrical intervention took place at the sub-station of the Meyrin site. This should balance the interrupters at the PS complex and eliminate the possibility of a repeat of the power cut from 2 weeks ago.

• Still some problems with the protons coming to ISOLDE. The BTY transformer has been tripping and the reason is not fully understood. The booster people are investigating it.

Physics

• Instantaneous rates at MINIBALL may result in multiple hits in the CD detector. In such case, it is impossible to associate the γ-rays with correct particles

The data of Wednesday morning look nice.

• Probably running again on the platinum target for getting the normalization point

• MINIBALL will continue this week and next.

• LA2: Users are setting up for collections of Hg isotopes for biophysics and solid state physics.
• Shielding will be placed on Monday around LA2 to protect passers-by from any dose rates, and also to enclose the area.

Safety

• Building 275 declassification continues, first with the empty rooms, offices and the old chromatography lab downstairs.
• Storage rooms should be optimized for the whole building
• Visits to ISOLDE from South Africa, from Ambassador of Thailand and Finnish students
• New regulations about the age of visitors may introduce the limit of 18 years. ISOLDE is a supervised region but is considered as controlled area in the case of open beam lines.
• Maria and Karl hold a key for b.275

• One can pick up the key and use it. Send an e-mail to Jenny stating the reason of entering to 275.
• Don’t forget to return back the key, since only two keys are now available for everybody.
• Probably these rules will last until the radioactive materials are moved out from 275.
• The kitchen in b 508 will be ready the 16^th of November.
• Many bottles of beer were found in the kitchen. All the bottles should be thrown after use. Plastic bags were put in the kitchen. They should be removed from b.508.
• The kitchen should be cleaned before the new kitchen furniture arrives.
• The budget to install the water circuit for laser labs is already signed. If someone sees people coming for this, they should inform the others interested.
• The card reader budget is signed to be moved in the end of control area of ISOLDE.
• The ISOLDE’s crane will not be used Tuesday and Thursday for the next two weeks from 10.00 to 12.00
• Separator course, two sessions. Many people seem to be interested.
• All the lead bricks from the labs should be collected together and they should be painted with specific colors. Maybe the budget can be asked by the safety group if we have many lead bricks for ISOLDE. The bricks should be eliminated to the minimum required number before being painted.
• Don’t forget to inform Jenny about your participation in the celebration for HIE-ISOLDE so that she can estimate the food that should be ordered

Minutes taken by SP