NUSTAR - Funding for Commissioning and Integration

新的放射性离子束(RIB)加速器设施的开发正在给核物理学带来革命性的变化。英国核物理界已经决定，其努力的主要焦点将是欧洲最大的设施，即正在德国达姆施塔特建造的FIRE(反质子和离子研究设施)综合体，位于目前的GSI地点。展会将在强子、核物理、原子和激光物理以及应用领域提供独特的机会。博览会将由一个国际财团建造，并将在全球范围内提供无与伦比的能力。它将能够产生所有稳定化学元素的强流，最高可达铀，能量范围为每核子1至30 GeV，也可以产生反质子。短寿命放射性物质的束流将在碎裂/散裂和裂变反应中产生。这种飞行设施的优点是能够提供任何同位素，而不依赖于元素的化学性质，并且生产过程快速，导致产生寿命最短的束流，因此也是最奇异的原子核。FIRE将在以下几个方面在飞行设施中独树一帜：(I)可以以每核子高达2GeV的高能肋骨进行实验；(Ii)它将为重核提供最纯净的放射性束流；(Iii)它将是世界上唯一拥有储存环的设施，使新一代独特的实验得以进行。NuSTAR(核结构、天体物理和反应)是来自36个国家146个机构的800名科学家的“保护伞”合作(2007年11月)，专注于核物理实验。它由围绕最先进的探测器系统的九个不同的合作组成，共同的目标是利用短寿命放射性物种的束流来研究原子核和核物质的性质在广泛的同位旋、角动量、温度和密度范围内如何变化。它将提供极端条件下核多体系统的数据。最终目标是找到原子核和核物质性质的统一描述。NuSTAR将是第一个实现新加速器设施潜力的重大项目，此外，它的一些项目将在施工阶段受益于正在对现有加速器进行升级而增加的束流强度。NuSTAR将允许英国核物理界解决最近英国核物理战略文件中概述的核结构和核天体物理学中的许多关键问题。特别是，建造阶段的成功完成将使人们能够考虑以下基本问题：--核存在的限度是什么？中子滴线在哪里？-新形式的集体运动是否发生在远离核稳定谷的地方？-在非常松散的核系统中是否存在新形式的核物质？-量子态的有序及其对核结构和反应的所有影响是如何产生的，在高度稀薄或富含中子的物质中发生变化？-在接近稳定的原子核中看到的对称性是否也远离稳定性，我们是否观察到新的对称性？-宇宙中发现的元素和同位素是如何形成的？-核合成的r过程的地点在哪里？-中子星的核状态方程是什么？目前的拨款请求是为了支持英国在广交会上参与NuSTAR。具体地说，它将有助于在现有的GSI设施中调试英国制造的设备。

Nuclear physics is being revolutionised by the development of new radioactive ion beam (RIB) accelerator facilities. The UK nuclear physics community has decided that the principal focus of its efforts will be the largest European facility, the FAIR (Facility for Anti-proton and Ion Research) complex being built in Darmstadt, Germany at the site of the present GSI. FAIR will provide unique opportunities in the fields of hadron-, nuclear-, atomic-, and laser physics, and applications. FAIR is to be built by an international consortium and will provide capabilities unmatched worldwide. It will be able to produce intense beams of all stable chemical elements up to uranium with energies in the range of 1 to 30 GeV per nucleon and also anti-protons. Beams of short-lived radioactive species will be generated in fragmentation/spallation and fission reactions. Such an in-flight facility has the advantages of being able to provide any isotope independently of the chemical properties of the element and the production process is fast, resulting in beams of the shortest-lived, and hence most exotic, nuclei. FAIR will be unique among the in-flight facilities in several ways: (i) experiments can be carried out with RIBs at high energies up to 2 GeV per nucleon; (ii) it will provide the purest radioactive beams for heavy nuclei; (iii) it will be the only facility in the world to have storage rings enabling a new and unique generation of experiments.NuSTAR (Nuclear Structure, Astrophysics and Reactions) is an "umbrella" collaboration of >800 scientists from 146 institutions in 36 countries (Nov. 2007) focussing on nuclear physics experiments. It comprises nine different collaborations based around state-of-the art detector systems with the common aim to exploit the beams of short-lived radioactive species to study how the properties of nuclei and nuclear matter vary over a wide range of isospin, angular momentum, temperature and density. It will provide data on nuclear many-body systems under extreme conditions. The ultimate goal is to find a unified description of the properties of nuclei and nuclear matter. NuSTAR will be the first major project to realize the potential of the new accelerator facility and, in addition, some of its projects will benefit during the construction phase from the increased beam intensity from the ongoing upgrade to the existing accelerators. NuSTAR will allow the UK Nuclear Physics Community to address many of the key questions in Nuclear Structure and Nuclear Astrophysics, outlined in the recent UK Nuclear Physics Strategy document. In particular the successful completion of the construction phase will permit the following fundamental questions to be considered:- What are the limits of nuclear existence? Where does the neutron-dripline lie? - Do new forms of collective motion occur far from the valley of nuclear stability?- Are there new forms of nuclear matter in very loosely bound nuclear systems?- How does the ordering of quantum states, with all of its consequent implications for nuclear structure and reactions, alter in highly dilute or neutron-rich matter?- Do symmetries seen in near-stable nuclei also appear far from stability and do we observe new symmetries?- How are the elements and isotopes found in the Universe formed?- Where are the sites of the r-process(es) of nucleosynthesis?- What is the nuclear equation of state for neutron stars?The present grant request is to support the UK involvement in NuSTAR at FAIR. Specifically it will help to commission equipment built by the UK at the existing GSI facility.