MRI: Development of an Energy Loss Optical Scintillation System (ELOSS), for Heavy-Ion Particle Identification (PID) to Advance Nuclear Physics Experiments

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This Major Research Instrumentation award will support development and deployment of a novel instrument that will precisely identify heavy-ion particles to advance nuclear science studies with rare-isotope beams. The Energy Loss Optical Scintillation System (ELOSS) will advance the research infrastructure for radiation-detection physics and technology, which will lead to breakthroughs in nuclear physics and nuclear astrophysics. ELOSS will also help realize the unprecedented discovery potential of the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB), currently under construction on the campus of Michigan State University. FRIB will be the world’s premier rare-isotope beam facility producing a majority (~80%) of the isotopes that are created in the cosmos, which then decay into the elements found on Earth. Studying these short-lived rare atomic nuclei will help scientists understand the origins of the elements. The same isotopes are needed to develop a predictive model of atomic nuclei and how they interact, and advance knowledge in materials science, nuclear medicine, and homeland security. ELOSS will allow significant advances in multi-messenger nuclear astrophysics studies, the physics of neutron stars, and the exploration of the forces that bind nucleons into nuclei.State-of-the-art experimental equipment like ELOSS will tap FRIB’s unprecedented discovery potential by studying isotopes at a high beam rate and high performance. The ELOSS device will broadly impact radiation-detection physics and technology. It will generate new insights into the physics processes, technological aspects, and operational parameters of the modern gas-based detector combined with advanced solid-state photo-sensors, under harsh heavy-ion beam conditions. Its operational principle is based on the detection of pure noble-gas scintillation for particle identification in nuclear physics experiments with heavy ions and is highly innovative. The expected benefit for identifying nuclear reaction products will be a superior energy resolution — three times better than present technology. This will lead to an unprecedented element-identification capability, a uniform response over large detection areas, and a high counting rate capability (above 100 kHz). As a result, ELOSS is expected to provide new opportunities for experiments with rare-isotope beams at FRIB.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.