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

这项重大研究仪器奖将支持开发和部署一种新型仪器，该仪器将精确识别重离子粒子，以推进稀有同位素束的核科学研究。能量损失光学闪烁系统将推进辐射探测物理学和技术的研究基础设施，这将导致核物理学和核天体物理学的突破。该项目还将帮助实现目前正在密歇根州立大学校园内建设的稀有同位素束设施前所未有的发现潜力。FRIB将是世界上首屈一指的稀有同位素束设施，生产宇宙中产生的大部分（约80%）同位素，然后衰变为地球上发现的元素。研究这些寿命短的稀有原子核将有助于科学家了解这些元素的起源。需要相同的同位素来开发原子核及其相互作用的预测模型，并推进材料科学，核医学和国土安全方面的知识。这将使多信使核天体物理学研究、中子星物理学以及核子结合成核的力的探索取得重大进展。像这类最先进的实验设备将通过以高束流速率和高性能研究同位素来挖掘FRIB前所未有的发现潜力。该装置将广泛影响辐射探测物理学和技术。它将在苛刻的重离子束条件下，对现代气体探测器的物理过程，技术方面和操作参数产生新的见解。其工作原理是基于探测纯惰性气体闪烁，用于重离子核物理实验中的粒子识别，具有很高的创新性。识别核反应产物的预期好处将是上级能量分辨率-比现有技术好三倍。这将导致前所未有的元素识别能力，在大的检测区域内的均匀响应，以及高计数率能力（100 kHz以上）。因此，预计该项目将为FRIB的稀有同位素束实验提供新的机会。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.