Minutes from ISOLDE Physics Group meeting, 4th November 2015.

There were no comments to the minutes from the previous PG meeting last week. 

Technical news:

All in all a good week at ISOLDE with only minor issues. Most focus on HIE-ISOLDE, which had many starts and stops during their first radioactive post-accelerated beam.   

• GPS:
  
  • Delivering Zn-beam to REX/HIE
  • The possible Li-run has been skipped – will concentrate on only running Zn for as long as possible to recover some of the lost time until shut down.
• HRS:
  
  • Lead target installed for run at LA2 for bio-physics. Hg beam collections.
    • Run until Monday.
    • ONLY use STAGISO protons from booster. Max 8x10¹² protons per pulse.
  • Friday observed vacuum problems with target. Could not be pumped.
  • 3 different targets could also not be pumped – conclusion front end leaks.
    • Leak came from the broken piston clamping the target (in plastic) on front end. Has been replaced with a new tested piston in metal Tuesday (was planned to be installed during shut-down).
    • About 2 days lost for beam time.
• RILIS:
  
  • Reports that all is fine. The Zn-beam is being ionised with fewer problems than had been foreseen. E.g. deterioration of the optics due to the UV 1^st step is much less severe than expected
• HIE:
  
  • A Faraday cup was replaced in the XT01 line on Friday afternoon. Needed at least 12 hours to re-pump, therefore was done before the weekend.
  • Had many starts and stops setting up and tuning the new machine.
    • Switching between REX and HIE mode.
    • Issues with beam-permit for the Cryo-module – These have since been resolved and REX can run at 2.85MeV/u overnight; HIE-ISOLDE only running for 6 hours per day during the day (not weekends).
  • Monday changed from 74-Zn to 76-Zn.
  • Rescaling problems. They had their first accelerated ⁷⁶Zn beam for 90 min on Tuesday afternoon

Physics:

• Miniball will continue taking Zn from GPS until shut down.
• Bio-physics will collect 197Hg (decay to Au) and 199mHg at LA2 from HRS. Implanting into ice and foils.

Safety:

• Waiting for report from RP for decontamination of old SSP lab in b275.
• The ISOLDE crane is undergoing an upgrade.
  
  • Check with Erwin before using it, as the controls may be in an intermediate state.
• Radiation from tunnel has been monitored and checked and nothing to report.

AOB:

• Milestone celebration first radioactive post-accelerated beams of the HIE-ISOLDE project:
  
  • Glass Box (Restaurant 1) the 10th of November at 16h
  • Please confirm your attendance to Jenny by e-mail, ASAP.
• HIE/Miniball:
  
  • A 2 min. of video has been made of the first HIE accelerated beam for the CERN web.
• INTC meeting open session: Location, building 40 basement, Salle Anderson12^th November 13:30.
• 508: Strange smell in the lower floor corridor is from new plastic curtain in the laser labs.              

The next ISOLDE PG meeting has been announced, and will be Wednesday at 10:45. There will be a seminar from Almudena Arcones, "Nucleosynthesis of heavy elements in supernovae and neutron star mergers".

Minutes taken by ~TEM