Facility for Rare Isotope Beams

The goal of the presentation will be to give a broad overview of alignment tools, techniques and activates, and highlight the areas where the alignment of accelerator components is crucial for future successful operation. In this presentation Peter Manwiller will give an overview of how the alignment group will use the lattice to position the accelerator components on the beamline. The presentation will cover the following alignment topics: Alignment calculations Component fiducialization FRIB coordinate systems Alignment instrumentation Alignment monument network Impacts on alignment accuracy

The Multi-Sampling Ionization Chamber MUSIC is an active target and detection system designed to efficiently measure fusion excitation functions with single-energy, low-intensity radioactive beams. The ionization gas in the chamber acts as both, counting gas and reaction target. The position of the reaction is determined using a segmented anode and the events are characterized by their energy loss in the detector. In this talk, I will review the principle of operation of MUSIC, the previous fusion measurements campaigns, discuss its advantages and limitations, as well as the use of MUSIC to measure other reaction mechanisms. I will also talk about our plans to upgrade the detector and the upcoming experimental test.

Various ion beam analysis techniques have been used with small accelerators for decades, especially Particle Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE) and Rutherford BackScattering (RBS). These non-destructive analysis techniques allow elemental analysis and layer thickness and composition on the surface of almost any solid target. We have been expanding the repertoire of samples studied by these techniques (and other ion beam analysis techniques such as Particle Induced Gamma-ray Emission -PIGE) to include environmental samples such as lake sediment, forensic samples such as glass and automotive paint, and most recently environmental toxins in consumer products. This work includes the screening of polyurethane foams, textiles and plastics for halogenated flame retardant chemicals, consumer products for the presence of per- and polyfluorinated compounds, and aerosols that contribute to air pollution. A summary of recent results will be presented together with future directions in which ion beam analysis is likely to go. In addition to our low-energy accelerator work, a brief overview of efforts to prepare for harvesting radioisotopes for practical applications at FRIB will be presented, including data from our most recent NSCL experiments where secondary ion beams were collected in a water target and analyzed offline. Each of these projects provides opportunity for new science, student training and a chance to affect various aspects US science policy.

The surrogate reaction approach is an indirect method to determine cross sections for compound-nuclear reactions involving unstable targets such as 89Zr ( = 3.27 days). While recent studies demonstrated the validity of the approach for studying fission cross sections of short-lived actinides, its applicability for (n,) reactions is still under investigation. We studied the  decay of excited 90Zr nuclei produced by 90Zr(p,p’), 91Zr(p,d), and 92Zr(p,t) surrogate reactions, respectively, in order to study the effect of the production mechanism on the decay of a compound nucleus and to infer the 89Zr(n,) cross sections. The experiments were carried out at the K150 Cyclotron facility at Texas A&M University with a 28.5-MeV proton beam. The reaction protons/deuterons/tritons were measured with the STARS array of three segmented Micron S2 silicon detectors. The coincident -rays were measured with the Livermore Texas Richmond (LiTeR) array of five Compton-suppressed HPGe clover detectors. We will present results of emission probabilities around the neutron separation energy (Sn = 11.97 MeV) from the different reactions, which showed the 90Zr(p,p’) reaction produces fewer γ-rays associated with transitions involving high spin states (J = 6–8 ħ) than the other two reactions, suggesting that inelastic scattering preferentially populates states in 90Zr that have lower spins than those populated in the transfer reactions investigated. Theoretical approaches to obtain the 89Zr(n,) cross sections from these emission probabilities will be also discussed.

Here we will discuss how uncertainties in the nuclear masses, beta-decay rates, and neutron capture rates of neutron-rich nuclei translate into uncertainties in the final abundance pattern produced in simulations of rapid neutron capture, or r-process, nucleosynthesis. These uncertainties can obscure details of the abundance pattern that in principle could be used to diagnose the r-process astrophysical site. We examine the impact of reductions of nuclear uncertainties that will come with new experiments and improved modeling.

The Isotope Separator and Accelerator (ISAC) facility located at the TRIUMF laboratory in Vancouver, Canada, is an advanced radioactive ion beam facility of the Isotope Separation On-Line (ISOL) type. Intense beams of rare isotopes are produced by bombarding thick production targets with up to 100 microamps of 500 MeV protons from the TRIUMF main cyclotron. These isotopes are ionized, mass-separated, and delivered to a variety of experimental facilities in the form of high-quality, low-energy ion beams which support a diverse program of nuclear structure, nuclear astrophysics, fundamental symmetries, and condensed matter research. The rare isotope beams can also be accelerated through a series of room temperature and superconducting linear accelerators to energies relevant to nucleosynthesis in explosive astrophysical environments, and beyond to energies above the Coulomb barrier. Following a brief overview of the ISAC facility, this presentation will focus on the decay spectroscopy research program with low-energy radioactive ion beams at ISAC-I. Recent high-precision branching-ratio and half-life measurements for superallowed Fermi beta emitters, and their implications for tests of the electroweak Standard Model, will be discussed. The new high-efficiency GRIFFIN gamma-ray spectrometer will be described, and first results from decay studies of neutron-rich nuclei near the N = 82 shell closure with GRIFFIN will be presented. Future opportunities for research at TRIUMF's Advance Rare IsotopE Laboratory (ARIEL), centered around a new superconducting electron linear accelerator driver, will be briefly introduced.

I will review the state of the art of QCD and electroweak calculations at the LHC, showing comparisons to data from ATLAS and CMS, and indicating where improvements are needed to achieve the highest physics potential from the LHC.

Supernovae (SNe) play an essential role in the Universe. They are routinely detected through dedicated robotic surveys, but most of these SNe are often too distant (~1-100 Mpc) to resolve the SN ejecta and immediate surroundings of the exploded stars. Fortunately, supernova remnants (SNRs) offer the means to study explosions and dynamics at sub-pc scales. In this talk, I will review recent advances in the understanding of SNe based on studies of SNRs, particularly using Chandra and NuSTAR X-ray observations. I will highlight investigations of SN asymmetry, based on morphologies and heavy metal (like iron and titanium) kinematics and abundances. I will also summarize the constraints on Type Ia SN progenitor scenarios using hard X-ray observations. Finally, I will present results localizing the hardest (>10 keV) non-thermal X-rays, which are associated with synchrotron emission from electrons accelerated by SNR shocks and discuss the implications regarding the particle acceleration process

This talk reviews some recent progress made by the Nuclear Lattice Effective Field Theory Collaboration. In the first part I discuss an ab initio calculation of alpha-alpha scattering which uses a technique called the adiabatic projection method. In the second part I present evidence that nuclear matter is near a quantum phase transition. I discuss the control parameter for this transition and consequences for nuclear clustering and the binding of protons and neutrons within nuclei.

More than 99% of the mass of the visible universe is made up of protons and neutrons. Both particles are much heavier than their quark and gluon constituents. The existence and stability of atoms rely on the fact that the mass difference between the neutron and the proton is about 0.14%. A slightly smaller or larger value would have led to a dramatically different universe. I show how theoretical breakthroughs and high-performance computing resources have transitioned to a point where these masses, their differences and similar physics observables can be calculated accurately on space-time lattices directly from Quantum Chromodynamics, the strongly interacting theory of quarks and gluons.

TBA

Classical novae and Type I X-ray bursts are the most common stellar explosions in the Galaxy. These explosive events occur in binary systems where a compact remnant accretes hydrogen-rich matter from a companion star. As this matter builds up, temperatures increase and eventually thermonuclear runaway is triggered. The nucleosynthesis that drives this runaway proceeds up the proton-rich side of the chart of nuclides via a series of reactions, such as (p, γ) and (α, p) reactions, and β decays. While these processes have significant effects on observed light curves and the abundances of isotopes produced in these events, many reaction rates either have large associated uncertainties or have never been measured in the laboratory. Given that the vast majority of these reactions involve unstable nuclei, the experimental determination of these reaction rates is technically very challenging. However, as radioactive ion beams become available, some of these reactions can now be studied for the first time. Nucleosynthesis in classical novae and X-ray bursts and the limitations in our understanding of these explosive events will be discussed, and a variety of new experimental techniques and resulting data will be presented.

Determining the swelling behavior of ferritic-martensitic alloys is important for predicting the safety and structural integrity of fast reactors. Self-ion irradiation experiments have been performed on ferritic-martensitic alloys HT9 to determine void swelling and microstructural evolution at 460°C up to 650 displacements per atom (dpa). Irradiations were performed with 5 MeV Fe++ ions on samples pre-implanted with 10 atom parts per million He and irradiated using a rastered beam with a 3 MV Pelletron accelerator at the Michigan Ion Beam Laboratory. The swelling evolution was determined using an Analytic Electron Microscope in scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) mode. Additionally, dislocation microstructure and precipitation behavior were analyzed using STEM imaging. The influence of dislocation microstructure and secondary phase formation on void swelling in the steady state regime was explained using a combination of experimental results and a cluster dynamics/rate theory model. Void swelling reaches a steady state swelling rate of 0.03%/dpa by 188 dpa at 460oC in 5 MeV Fe++-irradiated HT9. G phase precipitates were observed by 75 dpa and continued to grow up to 650 dpa and were correlated with void swelling, suggesting a similar defect absorption mechanism. M2X carbides were observed at 250 dpa. Dislocation loop evolution was observed up to 650 dpa and increased loop growth was correlated with M2X formation. These results were explained within the context of a rate theory/cluster dynamics model.

Concentrated solar power (CSP) systems are sought as the next generation of clean, renewable energy sources. The fast development of a cost-effective CSP system hinges on the appropriate selection of an adequate heat transfer fluid. Liquid metals, such as lead-bismuth-eutectic (LBE), have been proposed as candidate heat transfer fluids in solar central receiver systems. LBE has large thermal conductivity, a low melting point (125oC), has low viscosity, is inert in air and water, and is chemically stable up to the boiling point (1670oC). Liquid metals offers high heat transfer coefficients, reducing the size of heat exchangers and receivers. Also, a unique attribute for selecting the LBE is the high level of readiness developed in more than 80 years of nuclear reactor technology. A major technical challenge in the implementation of this technology is the availability of structural materials that stand the harsh corrosion environments at high temperature. Corrosion of steel, a primary structural material, in LBE is one of the main limiting factors for deploying this technology widely. It was shown that the corrosion of steels can be mitigated and reduced by creating an oxide layer at high temperatures. This work investigates the corrosion of different steel alloys at high temperatures with precise oxygen content in LBE.

Germanium gamma-ray detectors have provided the best gamma-ray energy spectroscopy for the past five decades. A fortuitous combination of physical properties enables the fabrication of large-volume germanium diodes that function as excellent gamma-ray spectrometers when cooled to the liquid-nitrogen temperature region. If the detector contacts are electrically segmented, the detector can also provide three-dimensional spatial resolution for gamma-ray imaging. The physics of segmented detector fabrication, crystal growth and novel gamma-ray imaging will be described.

Nuclear astrophysics stands out as a field that draws a diverse set of disciplinary interests as well as being amenable to a diverse set of methods -- theoretical, observational, and experimental. In this seminar, I approach the field from a theoretical, computational angle. I will introduce the novel low Mach hydrodynamics code Maestro, which has filled a gap in the astrophysical regimes that are computationally feasible to model in three dimensions. I deploy Maestro to model the turbulent, convecting nuclear burning on the surface of compact objects. My current focus is the first broad suite of 3D models of the pre-ignition turbulent convection on the surface of sub-Chandrasekhar mass white dwarfs. These systems can yields an incredible range of astrophysical transients -- type Ia supernovae, .Ia events, and helium novae -- and are potential sites of cosmic nucleosynthesis. To conclude, I discuss how this work and these methods can be applied to the nuclear astrophysics of neutron stars.

Radiation therapy (RT) is a type of cancer treatment that uses high energy photons (e.g., bremsstrahlung x-rays or gamma rays) or particles (e.g., electrons, protons) to kill malignant cells. It is used either in combination with surgery and/or chemotherapy, or for some early stage diseases, as the sole form of therapy. The radiation may be delivered externally from treatment units such as electron linear accelerators (external beam radiotherapy [EBRT]), or from internally implanted sealed radioactive sources (brachytherapy). Following a brief introduction to RT, this presentation will focus on the advantages made in gynecologic brachytherapy, a form of RT that has been used since the early 1900’s. This discussion will cover the evolution of imaging in brachytherapy (from radiographs to magnetic resonance imaging [MRI]), and customize treatment planning, as well as a discussion on the future of brachytherapy.

Active targets are versatile devices well adapted for reactions with the most exotic beam species, providing high luminosity without loss of resolution. Particles detected inside the detector gas volume are tracked and reconstructed with high efficiency. The Active Target Time Projection Chamber (AT-TPC) and MAIKo detectors are novel active targets particularly designed for performing direct and resonant reactions with the radioactive beams available in the NSCL/FRIB and the RCNP facilities within an energy range of around 5 to 100A MeV. While these two active targets provide a similar functionality, their complementary detection scheme and geometry make them suitable for a wide range of nuclear reactions. In this work we will discuss the experimental program regarding direct and resonant reactions for the AT-TPC and MAIKo active targets. In particular, the AT-TPC has proven to be very successful in determining exotic cluster structures in ¹⁰Be, ¹⁴C and ¹²Be as well as in investigating isobaric analog states in ⁴⁷K. The current scientific program will involve reactions of astrophysical interests, 2-proton radioactivity and the measurement of fission barriers of neutron deficient nuclei. In the case of the MAIKo detector, an experimental program for transfer and inelastic scattering reactions at the RCNP has been proposed. Current results and future perspectives will be presented in this seminar.

Our understanding of the nucleus can only progress via the exploration of its various degrees of freedom, most importantly the evolution of its shell structure across the nuclear landscape. The shell ordering well established in stable nuclei is not conserved in unstable nuclei, and the mechanisms that drive the changes in shell gaps are directly related to the nature of the strong force that binds nucleons into nuclei. The ultimate goal of nuclear physics is to model the nucleus and its interactions in a predictive way. We know the path to this goal involves the study of rare isotopes that can be produced in the laboratory in very small quantities. The experimental techniques and methods to utilize these sparse beams in the most optimum way are essential to the progress of nuclear science. I will present two approaches that are well adapted to two different energy domains: knockout reactions on fast beams produced via projectile fragmentation, and using an active target detector to maximize the luminosity of experiments at energies close to the Coulomb barrier. Although knockout reactions have been used extensively for over a decade, the details of the underlying reaction mechanism has only recently been explored experimentally. I will present results of exclusive experiments that demonstrate the robustness of our understanding of such reactions, and validate their use as a spectroscopic tool. These reactions were used to measure one-nucleon removal cross section with a 5% precision on radioactive p-shell nuclei and interpret the results in relation to ab-initio calculations of spectroscopic factors. Reactions in inverse kinematics close to the Coulomb barrier offer unique opportunities to study exotic nuclei, but they are plagued by the difficulty to efficiently and precisely measure the characteristics of the emerging particles. The Active Target Time Projection Chamber (AT-TPC) offers an elegant solution to this dilemma. I will present the AT-TPC and the first results obtained on resonant alpha scattering to explore the clustering properties of neutron-rich nuclei. Finally, the first re-accelerated radioactive beam experiment at the NSCL was conducted last September with the AT-TPC, where proton resonant scattering of a 4.6 MeV/u ⁴⁶Ar beam was used to measure the neutron single-particle strength in ⁴⁷Ar.

The talk will explore new experimental approaches to constrain key uncertainties in nuclear physics input data required to model astrophysical observables such as novae, cosmic gamma-ray emission and isotopic abundance ratios. Particular emphasis will be placed on the role of unstable nuclei in explosive astrophysical events.

The European Spallation Source has the aim to be the brightest source of neutrons in the world for the study matter and materials. Located in the outskirts of the city of Lund, Sweden, it will use a high power LINAC to accelerate 2GeV protons onto a tungsten target to produce neutrons via spallation. With a nominal project budget of 2 Billion USD(2013), construction began in 2014 and aims to deliver first beam in 2019. Approximately 50% of the cash financing comes from the two host countries of ESS, Sweden and Denmark and the remaining from a partnership of 14 European countries whose contributions are mostly in-kind. These in-kind contribution constitute the bulk of the technical infra-structure of the ESS. In the talk I will introduce the project and discuss some of the strategies that have been put in place to deal with the challenges of delivering ESS. I will focus mostly on the delivery of the scientific programme but will discuss also other aspects of the project.

The r-process is responsible for the production of half of the elements heavier than iron by a sequence of neutron captures and beta-decays. It requires very neutron rich conditions that can only be achieved under rather extreme astrophysical conditions. Core-collapse supernova have been considered for a long time as the r-process site. However, advances in astrophysical modelling have shown that supernova only contribute to the production of elements with Z 50 . Recently, compact binary mergers have attracted a lot of interest and they are currently considered the best candidate for the main r-process site. These events eject around 0.01 Msun of very neutron-rich material during the dynamical merger phase with a similar amount of material being ejected from the accretion disk formed around the compact object resulting from the merger. The conditions in the ejecta allow for a rather robust r-process that is almost independent of the astrophysical conditions. In this talk, I will discuss the important role of nuclear physics input to determine the r-process yields from compact binary mergers. In addition to neutron captures and beta decay, fission rates and yields of superheavy neutron-rich nuclei are fundamental to understand the r-process dynamics and nucleosynthesis. Mergers constitute also ideal candidates to directly observe the r-process via an electromagnetic transient due to the radioactive decay of r-process material. This type of event, known as kilonova, may have already been observed associated with the gamma-ray burst GRB 130603B.

The study of nuclear matter properties at densities larger than normal nuclear matter is one of the most intriguing topics in nuclear physics. The large densities expected within the core of neutron stars (NS) are connected to this topic, and since it is not yet clear at all what NS are composed of and which equation of state governs it, nuclear reaction at accelerator are used to study dense nuclear matter and help in shedding light on this puzzle. Some of the scenarios for NS foresee strangeness production as being energetically favorable at large nuclear densities and for this reason the study of the properties of strange hadrons within nuclear matter are particularly interesting. In this talk I will present and discuss the results measured by the FOPI and HADES experiment at GSI about the production of strange hadrons in hadron-hadron collisions in the GeV energy range to which I have actively contributed in the last 10 years. The studied kaon and antikaon properties in vacuum and within nuclear matter will be discussed. Indeed, some NS models involve antikaons and a possible antikaon condensate. This is strongly dependent on the kaon nucleon interaction. The state of the art for such scenarios will be presented. Also the hyperon nucleon interaction has been investigate in vacuum and within nuclear matter and it's possible implication for the NS models will also be laid out during the talk. Attention will be paid also to the technological developments carried out within my group in the last years, for the realization of the experiments at GSI.

The study of octupole deformation in nuclei can provide insight on multiple important questions in physics. For one, direct measurements of octupole correlations provide a stringent test of modern nuclear density functional theories (DFTs) which aim to describe bulk properties of extremely neutron-rich nuclides, inaccessible by experiment, but needed to understand, for example, the creation of the heavy elements in the rapid neutron capture (r-) process. The additional binding energy gained from octupole deformation is estimated to be ~1 MeV, the same level of precision demanded from models to reliably estimate the r-process nucleosynthesis path. Furthermore, atoms with octupole-deformed nuclei are prime candidates to search for a static electric dipole moment (EDM) which might identify time-reversal violating interactions that could explain the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe. Such nuclei are expected to exhibit Schiff moments that could enhance the atomic EDM up to ~1000 times. In order to identify the best candidates, the evolution of octupole collectivity in nuclei must be understood. The neutron-rich Ba isotopes, only recently accessible using radioactive beam facilities, provide a particularly interesting testing ground since they show signs of enhanced octupole correlations, except for a sudden drop in E1 strength by 2 orders of magnitude between N=88 and 90. In this talk, I will present the first direct measurement of octupole strength in these nuclei by Coulomb excitation of post-accelerated radioactive beams from ATLAS's CARIBU facility using the new gamma-ray tracking array GRETINA and auxiliary heavy-ion detector CHICO2. The new results indicate octupole enhancements that are greater than those predicted by DFTs and various other theoretical approaches.

Unconventional radiometals fill specialized roles in preclinical and translational research– particularly in late time-point positron emission tomography (PET) and targeted radionuclide therapy, but also as tools to test new methods of drug delivery and to trace the pharmacokinetics of novel medicines. Some unconventional radiometals, such as ⁴⁵Ti, ¹⁴⁰Nd/¹⁴⁰Pr, and ^52gMn, have unique, exploitable decay properties and chemical qualities that make them particularly interesting as medicinal tracers. For example, ¹⁴⁰Nd/¹⁴⁰Pr can be used as an in vivo internalization probe. Techniques to broaden the selection of available radiometals range from proton irradiation on small biomedical cyclotrons to spallation-based harvesting from facilities like ISOLDE. All production methods require similar isolation, purification, and radiolabeling processes with special emphases on radionuclidic purity, radiochemical purity, and specific activity. In the future, FRIB will produce an unprecedented spectrum of medically interesting radionuclides consequent to normal operation. Accordingly, FRIB stands to be a locus for developing previously unavailable medical radionuclides, ideally transitioning them from unconventional to conventional

Gender and racial diversity remains very limited in the physical sciences. Why are certain groups so under-represented? Why is it important for the scientific community to be more representative of the population at large? How can diversity be increased? In this talk, I will discuss modern understandings of challenges to diversity, like stereotype threat and unconscious bias. I will also present findings on the status of women and minorities specific to the nuclear physics community.

A high luminosity Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) is the ideal tool for the quantitative QCD studies of quarks and gluons. eRHIC, the proposed EIC at Brookhaven National Laboratory, is aiming on 10-100x luminosity than the only EIC in the history, HERA. To fulfill such goal, eRHIC includes an innovative accelerator design which associated with new accelerator physics challenges. This talk will review snapshots of the design options of eRHIC and challenges, which include the multi-pass Energy Recovery Linacs, special beam-beam effect in the new accelerator layout, crab crossing collision scheme and more topics. This talk will also explore the opportunity of new accelerator physics advancement during this design process.

The Fermilab Booster is being upgraded under the Proton Improvement Plan (PIP) to be capable of providing a proton flux of 2.25E17 protons per hour. The intensity per cycle will remain at the present operational 4.3E12 protons per pulse, however the Booster beam cycle rate is going to be increased from 7.5 Hz to 15 Hz. One of the biggest challenges is to maintain the present beam loss power while the doubling the beam flux. The goal is to reduce it by half by correcting and controlling the beam dynamics and by improving operational systems through hardware upgrades. This talk is going to present the recent beam study results and status of the Booster operations.

The neutrino physics community faces stark technological tradeoffs between conventional detectors that offer large target volumes but poor resolution, and advanced, high resolution detector systems with limited scalability. In this talk, I present a third way. By fundamentally reinventing the photodetector, it becomes possible to develop high-resolution Water Cherenkov (WC) or scintillation-based neutrino detectors capable of more complete event reconstruction using precision measurements of the positions and drift times of optical photons. I will give a brief overview of the Large Area Picosecond Photodetector (LAPPD) project, an effort to develop compact, microchannel plate (MCP) photomultiplier tubes capable of sub-millimeter, sub-nanosecond spatial resolutions and with potential for scalability to large experiments. I will also discuss a first effort to realize LAPPDs in a neutrino experiment at Fermilab: the Accelerator Neutrino Neutron Interaction Experiment (ANNIE). ANNIE is designed to measure the abundance of final-state neutrons produced by neutrinos in water, a key measurement for future neutrino and proton decay analyses. Finally I will present some thoughts on the long-term implications of new water and scintillation-based technology for next generation experiments approaching megaton-scales.

FACET’s (Facility for Accelerator Science and Experimental Tests), unique electron and positron beams provide a broad range of science opportunities from advanced accelerator R&D to materials science research. It is the only facility in world with the high intensity drive bunches necessary for high-gradient plasma and dielectric wakefield acceleration. The key results, including high efficiency high gradient acceleration of electron and positron bunches, from FACET’s 4 year long experimental program will be discussed. History of the FACET facility and status of the FACET-II project will conclude the presentation.

Beams of accelerated muons are of great interest for fundamental high-energy physics research as well as for providing an ideal technology for a TeV or multi-TeV collider. For instance, the Fernilab g-2 experiment will determine with unprecedented precision the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon while the Mu2e experiment will improve by four orders of magnitude the sensitivity on the search for Charged Lepton Flavor Violation process of a neutrinoless conversion of a muon to an electron. In this talk, I will present recent advancements towards improving the sensitivity and increasing the capabilities of accelerated muon beams. Such advancements include the notable increase of the beam brilliance through ionization cooling, the enhancement of accelerating gradient via appropriate choice of materials and the improvement of beam transmission through compensation of space-charge forces. Finally, I will briefly discuss opportunities for future work.

The neutron is a unique probe for the investigation of fundamental questions in particle physics and cosmology. With high measurement precision at extremely low energies, neutrons can be used to search for diluted traces of physics that once dominated the early Universe, some of them far beyond the reach of accelerators. In the next few years, a boost in the statistical quality is expected, using super-thermal sources of ultra-cold neutrons (UCN) at various facilities. A prominent UCN experiment is the search for the time-reversal symmetry violating electric dipole moment of the neutron (EDM), an important ingredient in the explanation of the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the Universe. Such experiments typically use spin-clocks based on polarized noble gases, in combination with Ramsey’s method of separated oscillatory fields. Another scientific highlight is the demonstration of a gravity-resonance spectroscopy technique, a first step towards a Ramsey-like experiment without electromagnetic interactions. Measurements benefit from the absence of an electron shell surrounding the neutron, useful e.g. for the investigation of short distances interactions probing both new gravity-like forces, as well as possible spin-matter couplings. An example of the technological developments in this field is a unique experimental environment with the smallest extended-size magnetic background fields in the solar system. In this talk I will give an overview of the most exciting recent developments in this field, together with some ideas where to go in the future.

The transport and acceleration of charged particles requires technical development and clear understanding of the particle dynamics. However, the production of high intensity beams (FAIR,JPARC, LHC Intensity Upgrade) or of high energy beam (LHC) makes the design less obvious. An accelerator becomes a world where complex mechanisms takes place (nonlinear resonances, dynamics aperture, collective effects, instabilities, electron cloud, etc.). Mechanisms with short time scale conflicts with mechanisms of long time scale and new effects become important for the beam control. This lecture will introduce the physics of high intensity beams and the nonlinear beam dynamics, and address the ongoing studies of resonance crossing.

A wide range of accelerator R&D work supported by ATLAS upgrade projects, DOE grants and collaboration with ANL/APS, JLAB, FNAL, MSU, RISP is being performed in Physics Division. In addition to ATLAS intensity upgrade we are bringing on-line new Electron Beam Ion Source which demonstrated excellent results during off-line commissioning. Integration of EBIS allows us to pursue ATLAS multi-user upgrade to provide radioactive and stable ion beams simultaneously to different experiments. I will also discuss development of 1.4 GHz superconducting Higher Harmonic Cavity (HHC) and 2.8 GHz quasi-wave guide multi-cell resonator (QMiR) for Advanced Photon Source Upgrade. The HHC is being developed for four-fold increase of Tuschek lifetime of 200 mA electron beam in the new storage ring while QMiR can be used to create very short X-ray pulses. The results of conceptual design of a multi-ion linac as an injector for Electron Ion Collider (DOE/NP Grant) and feasibility study of a compact carbon ion linac for cancer therapy (DOE/HEP Grant) will be presented. Recent progress in the development of various aspects of ion accelerator systems related to the collaboration with FNAL, MSU and RISP will be also briefly discussed. Particularly, a proposal to combine the modified pre-stripper section of the driver linac and post-accelerator at RISP will be presented.

Loosely bound nuclei are currently at the center of interest in nuclear physics in problems related to the limits of stability of nuclear matter and nucleosynthesis. Since nuclear properties are profoundly affected by environment of the many-body continuum representing scattering and decay channels, a simultaneous understanding of the structural and reaction aspects is crucial for understanding of short-lived nucleonic matter. Attempts to reconcile the nuclear shell model (SM) with the reaction theory has led to the development of the Feshbach projection-operator technique and, subsequently, the continuum shell model. The open quantum system generalization of SM in the Berggren single particle (s.p.) ensemble including s.p. resonant states and complex-energy scattering states, lead to the formulation of Gamow shell model (GSM) which provides a microscopic description of bound and decaying many-body states within the same formalism. Recently, the reconciliation of the GSM with the reaction theory has been attempted leading to the new, coupled-channel formulation of the GSM. to the development of the continuum shell model. The open quantum system generalization of SM in the Berggren single particle ensemble including resonant states and complex-energy scattering states, lead to the formulation of Gamow shell model (GSM) which provides a microscopic description of bound and decaying many-body states within the same formalism. Recently, the reconciliation of the GSM with the reaction theory has been attempted leading to the new, coupled-channel formulation of the GSM. We will review recent progress in the shell model description of nuclear open quantum systems. The interplay between Hermitian and anti-Hermitian configuration mixing in open quantum systems creates collective phenomena such as the resonance trapping and the superradiance, the cluster states in the vicinity of cluster-decay threshold, the multichannel coupling effects in reaction cross-sections and shell occupancies, the modification of spectral fluctuations,etc. Various applications of these two models in studies of nuclear spectra and binding energies, exotic particle decays and nuclear reactions will illustrate some of those generic open quantum system phenomena in the context of nuclear physics.

Chiral perturbation theory is a useful tool to develop consistent two- and more-baryon interactions based on the symmetries of Quantum Chromo Dynamics. In this talk, I discuss predictions for the binding energies of light hypernuclei with A=7 based on chiral hyperon-nucleon interactions in leading and next-to-leading order. For the application to larger systems, the Jacobi no-core shell model was employed which requires to evolve such interactions using the similarity renormalization group. After a brief introduction to this method, I will use binding energy results of light hypernuclei to quantify the contribution of three-baryon interactions induced by this technique.

After some introductory remarks on the equation of state, the neutron skin and the nuclear dipole polarizability, results from three recently performed proton scattering experiments on 208Pb, 120Sn and 48Ca are presented from which the latter has been determined. The implications of the experimental results with respect to predictions from density functional and from chiral effective field theory are also discussed.

In my presentation, I’d like to address experiments using unbound nuclei very far from the valley of stable nuclei, and exploring their extreme properties. The availability of intense secondary beams in conjunction with efficient detection setups allows for a production and study of the most extreme nuclear systems in terms of asymmetry of proton and neutron number in the continuum. Nuclei close to the drip-lines, exhibiting exotic properties themselves, are used as seeds for a subsequent production process in knockout reactions at relativistic energies. These nuclear systems challenge nuclear structure theory being open quantum systems far from the valley of beta stability as well as reaction theory while trying to describe their production mechanisms. From experiment momentum distributions, relative energy spectra, and spin alignment during the reaction can be determined and lead to the observation of energy and angular correlations as well as dependent quantities. The link to intrinsic properties of the unbound systems has to be explored by comparing properties of seed nuclei and to the experimental findings in the continuum. In my talk I will exemplify the above-mentioned methods, and present selected data on light systems like 5,7H, 7-10He, 10-13Li, and exotic Oxygen and Neon isotopes.

EXL (EXotic nuclei studied in Light-ion induced reactions) is a project within NUSTAR at FAIR. It aims for investigation of nuclear structure of radioactive ions in storage rings with direct reactions in inverse kinematics. One of the key interests of EXL is the investigation of reactions at very low momentum transfers where, for example, the nuclear matter distribution, isoscalar giant resonances or Gamow-Teller transitions can be studied. The existing storage ring ESR at GSI provides a unique opportunity to perform part of the program already now. We have developed a UHV compatible detector setup mainly based on DSSDs for the target-like recoils and an in-ring detection system for the projectile-like heavy ions. With this setup we successfully performed feasibility studies and first experiments by using stored 20Ne, 58Ni as well as radioactive 56Ni beams with the internal (hydrogen or helium) gas-jet target. As part of the first EXL campaign we investigate the nuclear matter distribution and radius of 56Ni and 58Ni from elastic proton scattering measurements at 400 MeV/u. As a proof of principle experiment, the isoscalar giant resonances of 58Ni (at 100 MeV/u) were studied from measurements of inelastically scattered alpha particles in very forward angles in the center of mass system. In this talk the current status of the project and results of the campaign will be presented.

A better and more formal understanding of the scientific method is useful both in the practice and the selling of science. Here, I will present a no-nonsense description of the scientific method based on a model building metaphor and the philosophical tradition known as pragmatism. While the scientific method is straight forward it has aspects that are counter intuitive which explain why it arose so late in the development of human civilization and why to this very day it is frequently misunderstood and even its existence denied. With a clear understanding of the scientific method the demarcation criterion for what is science becomes clear and we can answer questions like: Is string theory science? Or why creation science is not science?

Far from stability, nuclear structure and the onset of deformation evolves rapidly. Reliable structure information is crucial in understanding this shape evolution across isotopic and isobaric chains, and is also critical to nuclear astrophysics, where structure observables are important inputs for modeling reaction pathways. In particular, the neutron-rich midshell region around A=110 is known to exhibit rapid structure changes. The onset of deformation in A~110 nuclei remains under discussion, and different types of deformations have been observed within a small window of the nuclear landscape, including shape-phase transitions, triaxial deformation and oblate configurations. We have investigate the A=109 β-decay chain produced from the fission of 238U at the University of Jyväskylä IGISOL facility. Gamma-ray transitions were measured with a multidetector array consisting of two high-purity germanium detectors and two LaBr3(Ce) scintillators, and also a plastic scinti llator for β-detection. Triple coincidence β-γ-γ events were recorded and used to check / extend level schemes, as well as extract picosecond-range level lifetimes via the Advanced Time Delay Technique pioneered by H. Mach. Results will be presented on the low-energy structure of 109Tc, 109Ru and 109Pd in the context of the A=109 decay chain and the region. Support from the NSF through grants PHY0822648 and PHY0758100 is gratefully acknowledged.

The 9Be(14C, alpha gamma) reaction at E_lab = 30 and 35 MeV was used to study excited states of 19O. The Florida State University (FSU) gamma detector array was used to detect gamma radiation in coincidence with charged particles detected and identified with a silicon DeltaE-E particle telescope. Gamma decays have been observed for the first time from six states ranging from 368 to 2147 keV above the neutron separation energy in 19O. The gamma decaying states are interspersed among states previously observed to decay by neutron emission. The ability of electromagnetic decay to compete successfully with neutron decay is explained in terms of neutron angular momentum barriers and small spectroscopic factors implying higher spin and complex structure for these intruder states. These results illustrate the need for complementary experimental approaches to best illuminate the complete nuclear structure.

In-Flight radioactive beam facilities have the advantage that the energy at which the production reaction occurs can be tuned to favor the population of a specific reaction channel. This property is particularly attractive to perform studies with isomeric beams where the isomer has a very different configuration than the ground state. One of the most interesting cases is the 0+ isomer in 26Al, located just 228 keV above the ground state (5+). Proton captures on both, the ground state and the isomeric state, may have a direct impact on the abundance of 26Al in the Galaxy. In this talk, I will discuss our efforts to develop an isomeric 26Alm beam and the plans to use it to constrain the destruction rate of Galactic 26Al.

Recently, the Ni isotopic chain has been the focus of many experimental and theoretical investigations studying the evolution of nuclear structure away from stability. In particular, 68Ni has elicited significant attention due to the presence of both the Z = 28 shell closure and the N = 40 subshell closure. In 68Ni three 0+ states all below 3 MeV of excitation energy have been identified. In even-even nuclei, low energy excited 0+ states are the hallmark of shape coexistence, a phenomenon characterized by multiple states with different intrinsic shapes coexisting at similar excitation energies. These coexisting structures owe their existence to particle-hole excitations across shell and subshell gaps and are stabilized by residual proton-neutron interactions. In 68Ni, shell-model calculations, utilizing the full fpg9/2d5/2 model space for both protons and neutrons, predict a spherical 01+ ground state, oblate-deformed 1603-keV 02+ state, and prolate-deformed 2511-keV 03+ state. Further, with the addition of only two neutrons leading to 70Ni the energy of the prolate deformed 0+ state is expected to drop precipitously from 2511 keV down to 1525 keV. This is explained by the strengthening of the attractive νg9/2 – πf5/2 and repulsive νg9/2 – πf7/2 monopole interactions of the tensor force, which serve to reduce the magnitude of the Z = 28 spherical shell gap. In order to validate and constrain these calculations detailed spectroscopy of 68,70Ni was performed at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL). A new (02+) state was discovered at 1567-keV in 70Ni in good agreement with theoretical predictions. Transition probabilities have been deduced from new lifetime and branching ratio measurements of 0+ states in 68,70Ni. Overall a picture of tensor force driven shell evolution yielding shape coexistence in 68,70Ni has emerged. Results of these recent NSCL experiments will be presented.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has a long history in the production of heavy elements as well as the support of the discovery of super heavy elements (SHEs). Although ORNL’s original mission was to support the Manhattan Project with the production and separation of 239Pu in 1944, its name has been synonymous with isotopes. The exploration of research into the development of new isotopes and their production is enhanced by ORNL’s unique facilities—the Radiochemical Engineering Development Center and the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR). Research into novel methods for the transmutation of curium to heavier actinides and development of thin actinide targets for SHE discovery is at the forefront of ORNL’s program.

The ground and excited states of many light, proton-rich nuclei will decay by emission of one or more protons. These nuclei provide an interesting playground for accessing nuclear structure information, in particular the decay energy, width and momentum correlations. Experimentally these particle unbound states can be accessed through nucleon knockout reactions or inelastic excitation. In this talk I will discuss recent measurements using the High Resolution Array (HiRA) at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory. I will focus on the proton-decaying members of the A=7 and A=8 isobars.

Accurate nuclear data on neutron-induced fission are required for the development of new solutions in nuclear energy production. In particular, new concepts are being investigated to improve the efficiency of the fuel cycles, the safety of nuclear power plants and the treatment of nuclear waste. Several experiments devoted to improve our knowledge on nuclear data will be presented: The high-intensity neutron beam at the Neutron Time Of Flight (n_TOF) facility at CERN covers an unprecedented neutron energy range, from less than 1 eV to 1 GeV. The use of position-sensitive Parallel Plate Avalanche Counters (PPAC) makes possible to measure the fission cross section and the angular distribution of fission fragments for a wide energy range of the incident neutron. The experimental setup and the results obtained for several nuclei will be discussed. A different experimental setup based on PPACs and Si-Si-CsI telescopes will be used at the upcoming NFS facility at GANIL (France). In this case, a simultaneous measurement of the cross sections of U-235(n,f) and U-238(n,f) using the H(n,n) reaction as neutron monitor has been proposed, in order to reduce the uncertainties on these neutron cross-section standards. The dependence of the prompt fission neutron multiplicity wight he fragment mass and the excitation energy is another topic of interest. A feasibility test with U-235(n,f) has been done at IRMM (Belgium), using an ionization chamber and liquid scintillators. The analysis is still ongoing and preliminary results will be shown.

Transfer reactions at energies close to the Coulomb barrier always played an important role in the study of nuclear structure and reaction dynamics, both with light and heavy ions. The constituents of the heavy-ion collision may exchange many nucleons, thus providing information on the contribution of single-particle and correlated particle transfer modes, as well as information important for the study of the evolution from the quasi-elastic to the deep-inelastic regime. The recent revival of transfer reaction studies benefited from the construction of the new generation large solid angle magnetic spectrometers based on ion trajectory reconstruction. The coupling of these spectrometers with large gamma arrays allowed the identification of individual excited states and their population pattern. Recent results obtained by using the PRISMA spectrometer coupled to gamma arrays will be presented. One of the major achievements of the last years was the extraction of absolute differential cross sections through a careful study of the response function of the spectrometer. This will be presented on the example of multinucleon transfer reaction 40Ar+208Pb measured at Elab = 255 MeV at LNL, Italy. Mass and charge yields, differential and total cross sections, total kinetic energy loss distributions of different channels were simultaneously measured. Final differential cross sections were obtained by matching different angular settings of the PRISMA spectrometer for the first time. The relative role of the single-particle and pair degrees of freedom in transfer processes will be discussed through their comparison with the semi-classical model GRAZING. Another significant progress has been recently achieved by performing studies below the Coulomb barrier. Transfer cross sections obtained from the excitation functions for the recently measured systems in inverse kinematics with the PRISMA spectrometer will be discussed and compared with microscopic calculations which incorporate particle correlation in the two-neutron transfer channel.

The standard quark model makes no allowance for the existence of gluons outside hadrons; however lattice QCD calculations predict bound states of two or more gluons, called glueballs. According to lattice calculations, the lightest of these experimentally unverified particles is expected to have mass in the range of 1 - 1.8 GeV and JPC = 0++. The mixing of glueball states with neighbouring meson states complicates their identification. The f0(1500) is one of several candidates for the lightest glueball, whose presence in the K0K0 channel was investigated in s s photoproduction using the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS) at Jefferson Lab. This was done by studying the reaction, /p ! fJ p ! K0K0p ! 2(⇡+⇡-)p using data from s s the g12 experiment. An angular analysis was performed on this data to characterize the spin properties of the resonance observed at 1.5 GeV. Results from the analysis of this data will be presented. The g12 experiment ran with the CLAS6 detector, so named because of its capability to work with a maximum electron beam energy of 6 GeV. Jefferson Lab has since upgraded its facility to produce electron beam with double that energy. This necessitated the update of the CLAS detector sub-systems in order to improve their functionality at higher energies. One of these upgrades is the preshower calorimeter (PCAL), which is to be placed in fromt of the CLAS6 electromagentic calorimeter. The construction and testing of the PCAL will be discussed.

THESIS IS ON DISPLAY IN ROOM 1312 BPS BLDG. AND THE NSCL

The heaviest elements attract interest from nuclear and atomic physics due to their distinct properties. Nuclear shell effects are responsible for their very existence stabilizing them against immediate disintegration. Strong relativistic effects influence their electronic structure and chemical behavior as certain orbitals are stabilized while others become less bound. Precision measurements of various atomic and nuclear properties improve our understanding of these exotic objects and probe the nature of the underlying forces. Accurate experimental data also challenge theoretical predictions and contribute to their improvement. Numerous precision measurements of ground state properties of radionuclides across the nuclear chart have been obtained in recent years utilizing ion trap and laser spectroscopy-based techniques. New methods for slowing down high-energy beams in buffer gas cells have opened the door to extend such experiments to the heaviest. I will discuss recent developments for high- precision mass measurements with SHIPTRAP at GSI. In addition, I will present the latest results of pioneering resonance ionization laser spectroscopy experiments on nobelium (Z=102).

In the CHESS-U upgrade, we are going to rebuild an 83m section of Cornell Electron Storage Ring (CESR) in the south arc region, replacing with six cells of double bend achromats and installing four new pairs of canted undulators. With the upgrade, there will be a total of five undulator beamlines available for users. In this talk, I will give a brief overview of the project, and present some details on the conceptual design of the vacuum system in this section, such as base extrusions for the beampipes, distributed non-evaporable getter pumping, the crotch absorber, etc.

Currently, about 25 million cargo shipping containers enter the US every year compared with ~100 million international travelers at airports. These containers have a wide variety of cargo packed in a wide variety of configurations. As the Homeland Security website states The Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is charged with the critical task of securing the country from terrorists and their weapons while facilitating legitimate trade and travel, including the monitoring of what's in thousands of sea cargo containers as they pass through CBP screening. These containers must be inspected quickly and accurately, and without the business at each port grinding to a halt when they do so. This talk will primarily focus on some of the technologies used to screen these containers for illicit materials, including a discussion of where applied nuclear physics is extremely important. This work has been supported by the US Department of Homeland Security, Domestic Nuclear Detection Office, under competitively awarded contract/IAA HSHQDC-12-X-00341. This support does not constitute an express or implied endorsement on the part of the Government. This work performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.

Kévin Fossez Single-particle and collective motion in unbound deformed 39Mg Samuel Lipschutz Gamma cascade studies in 64Cu Giordano Cerizza Constraining the symmetry energy with the SπRIT TPC

The nucleosynthesis occurring in astrophysical explosions can be very different than that which occurs in main sequence stars such as our sun. In fact, many of the properties of explosive astrophysical events are determined by the nuclear physics of the radioactive nuclei that power the explosion. At the University of Notre Dame TwinSol radioactive beam separator, exotic nuclei of astrophysical interest are being produced and studied in order to further our understanding of astrophysical explosions. In fact, TwinSol was the first such device in the United States dedicated to radioactive beam production. Recent studies of astrophysical interest using the device will be presented along with plans for upcoming measurements with a particular focus on studies with radioactive 17F beams.

The National Science Foundation is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the national defense... With an annual budget of .5 billion, it is the funding source for approximately 24 percent of all federally supported basic research conducted by colleges and universities. In this talk I will provide an overview of the support provided by NSF to the fields of Plasma Physics and Accelerator Science, as well as highlight the importance of basic discovery-driven research supported by the NSF Division of Physics. Dr. Vyacheslav (Slava) Lukin received BA in Physics and Mathematics from Swarthmore College in 2000 and PhD in Astrophysical Sciences from Princeton University in 2008. His PhD thesis topic was magnetic reconnection and tokamak sawtooth oscillations using high-accuracy fluid-based computational methods. Dr. Lukin was an ORISE FES sponsored postdoctoral fellow at the University of Washington in 2009 and after that joined the staff of the Naval Research Laboratory in the Space Sciences Division. Dr. Lukin is the lead developer of the HiFi open source multi-fluid modeling framework for plasmas and has published applications to laboratory, space, and solar plasmas. He has held leadership roles in plasma physics community. Since 2014, Dr. Lukin is a Program Director in the NSF Division of Physics with responsibility for programs in Plasma Physics and Accelerator Sciences.

Parity-violating electron scattering allows us to measure the weak interaction analog of the ordinary electromagnetic scattering. Because the weak and electromagnetic charges of quarks differ, it is possible to extract from such measurements individual flavor contributions to, for example, the proton charge distribution and its magnetic moment. The weak interaction also involves a coupling to an axial current; I will discuss measurement of the nucleon anapole moment and some limitations in its interpretation. The set of these measurements, when combined with results of shorter distance scale experiments, suggests a picture of the nucleon in which light quark pairs ‘live’ for a relatively long time; strange quark pairs, by contrast, appear to be relatively short-lived.

Neutrons produced by the 7Li(p, n)7Be reaction close to threshold are characterized by a quasi-stellar energy distribution, hence they are widely used to measure the Maxwellian-Averaged Cross Section (MACS) of s-process nucleosynthesis reactions. With the higher proton intensities available in modern RF accelerators, the development of lithium targets capable of intense heat removal is required. A Liquid-Lithium Target (LiLiT) was commissioned with a 1.2 mA, 1.9 MeV proton beam from the Soreq Applied Research Accelerator Facility (SARAF, Israel). The LiLiT was proved to enable s-process measurements with neutron intensities of ~3x1010 n/s, and it is suited for the study of neutron capture on nuclides of low abundance. Recent preliminary results will be presented.

The statistical Hauser-Feshbach theory with width fluctuation correction has been successfully applied to analyze experimental nuclear reaction data, and to predict unknown cross sections often required by many applications such as astrophysics. We can also apply the theory to nuclear structure study, e.g. the beta-delayed neutron and photon emission, where all the emission competition should be included. One of recent advances in the reaction theory is to produce correlated information during the de-excitation of compound nucleus, and we employ the Monte Carlo technique. The Monte-Carlo Hauser-Feshbach method enables us to simulate experiments in more natural way, and provides some key signals to understand nuclear reaction mechanisms. In this talk, I will briefly summarize the statistical theory of nuclear reactions, and introduce our Monte Carlo Hauser-Feshbach technique.

The more than 40 years old GSI-UNILAC (Universal Linear Accelerator) as well as the heavy ion synchrotron SIS18 will serve as a high current heavy ion injector for the new FAIR (Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research) synchrotron SIS100. An UNILAC-upgrade program will be realized until FAIR commissioning starts, providing for the high heavy ion beam currents as required for this project. Among other upgrade measures a new ion source terminal and a low energy beam line are dedicated to increase the primary low charge uranium beam intensity. In the context of an advanced machine investigation program in combination with the ongoing UNILAC upgrade program, a new uranium beam intensity record (11.5 emA, U29+) at very high beam brilliance was achieved recently in a machine experiment campaign. This is an important step paving the way to fulfill the FAIR heavy ion high intensity beam requirements. The replacement of the poststripper-DTL is advised to provide a stable operation for the next decades. Recently an ALVAREZ- and an IH-type DTL-design are under investigation. FAIR commissioning has to be accomplished after 2022. As shown in machine experiments, UNILAC can serve also as a high current FAIR proton injector for the first time. Pushing the proton intensities to the required limit a new FAIR proton linac has to be build. Besides, a dedicated superconducting heavy ion cw-linac is planned to build, serving experiments independently with beam energies up to 7.5 MeV/u. The basic ideas and the recent status of the FAIR upgrade program and an outlook will be presented.

An isotopic chain of neutron-rich light nuclei provides a unique opportunity to study the fusion of two nuclei. On qualitative grounds the addition of neutrons to a projectile nucleus modifies the nuclear surface providing an increased attraction between projectile and target nuclei which should aid the fusion process. Thus, systematic investigation of an isotopic chain can provide an interesting test of how the nuclear surface evolves with addition of neutrons. To exploit this opportunity we have developed an experimental technique to investigate the fusion of neutron-rich light nuclei with low-intensity beams. The total fusion cross-section is directly measured by detecting evaporation residues that result from the de-excitation of the fusion product and identifying them by measuring their energy and time-of-flight. Using this technique the first measurement of the fusion excitation function for 19O + 12C was performed. The 19O beam, with an intensity of 2-4 x 103 ions/s, was obtained by using the 18O(d,p) reaction together with the RESOLUT mass spectrometer at Florida State University. Comparison of the 19O + 12C fusion excitation function with that of 18O + 12C clearly demonstrates a fusion enhancement for the neutron-rich projectile nucleus. At the lowest energy measured the fusion cross-section is enhanced by approximately a factor of three. The experimental results are compared with a state-of-the-art microscopic model and the influence of pairing on the model predictions will be discussed.

Cryogenic detectors with operating temperatures below 0.1 K offer an order of magnitude higher energy resolution than semiconductor detectors. Different detector technologies can be adapted for photon and particle detection, and provide unprecedented accuracy to measure energies of nuclear decays. Superconducting tunnel junction (STJ) X-ray detectors exploit the ~meV energy gap in superconducting materials to provide an energy resolution of 2 - 5 eV FWHM for energies 1 keV. STJs can be operated at several 1000 counts/s per pixel, and the (200 µm)^2 pixels can be scaled to arrays for increased sensitivity. We will discuss their use in high-resolution soft X-ray spectroscopy at synchrotron light sources, and for high-accuracy measurements of ultra-low energy nuclear decays. For gamma-rays, we are developing magnetic micro-calorimeters (MMCs) that measure energies from the change in magnetization upon gamma or particle absorption. They have an energy resolution 50 eV at 60 keV, and can be adapted for high-energy ion detection. We have also developed the refrigerators to make operating temperatures 0.1 K accessible fully automated and without the use of cryogenic liquids, which have by now become commercially available. This talk provides an overview about cryogenic detector development at LLNL and their potential use at a radioactive beam facility.

Synthesis of superheavy elements (SHE) with fusion-evaporation reactions is strongly hindered by the quasifission (QF) mechanism which prevents the formation of an equilibrated compound nucleus and which depends on the structure of the reactants. The collision dynamics of these reactions can be studied using the unrestricted time-dependent density-functional theory (TDDFT) [1–6], as well as the density-constrained TDDFT method to extract the nucleusnucleus potentials and the excitation energy of the fragments. We show recent results and analysis of quasifission and capture cross-sections using TDDFT. Results for mass-angledistributions (MAD) and contact times are presented as a function of orientation of the deformed nuclei with respect to collision axis as well as a function of impact parameter. We compare calculated MAD’s to the corresponding experimental distributions. We discuss the dependence of various observables on isospin and elucidate the advantage of using neutron-rich nuclei in fusion experiments leading to superheavy elements. We also discuss the calculation of moments of inertia and various ways to calculate the PCN probability using these results.

Since the first radioactive ion beam produced more than 50 years ago, we have come a long way in the development of radioactive ion beam facilities and opened new doors to our understanding of both nuclear reactions and nuclear structures. The result is a steep increase in the complexity and variety of the experimental devices used to perform nuclear physics experiments and with it more and more time spent on data analysis. On the other hand Monte Carlo simulation became the standard approach to better understand those complex experimental setups allowing for all the correlated effects at play to be taken into account consistently. I will present the NPTool framework 1, a novel ROOT and GEANT4 based framework designed to help low-energy nuclear physicists analyse and simulate their experiments. The framework design has a strong focus on ease of use, helping the user to focus on the experimental problems rather than pure programming issues. In addition, bringing together Monte Carlo simulation and data analysis in a consistent fashion help develop and test reliable analysis code, as well as gaining insight in the experiment’s behavior by confronting directly simulated and experimental data. NPTool is also used as a hub for the community, helping to mutualize and share user work, to help the design of a detector systems and performing quicker analysis. The package is available through our dedicated web site nptool.org and contains all the necessary documentation to install and use NPTool. I will illustrate as an example the simulation part of NPTool by showing the efficiencies of close packed arrays of CsI crystals for charged particle detection such as the HiRA and LASSA telescopes, where both Coulomb multiple scattering and nuclear reactions occurring in the crystal are taken into account. 1. A. Matta, P. Morfouace et al. J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phys. 43, 045113 2016.

Our research group (SPINLAB) is involved in two major research activities. The first is the search for time-reversal violation in nuclei. One particularly sensitive and unambiguous signature of both time-reversal- and CP (charge-parity)-violation would be the existence of an electric dipole moment (EDM). It is believed that additional sources of CP-violation may be needed to explain the apparent scarcity of antimatter in the universe. Motivated by this compelling discovery potential, there is a world-wide effort to search for EDMs in a variety of systems that are sensitive to a different sources of CP-violation. Radium-225 is a particularly attractive choice because its pear-shaped nucleus amplifies the observable effect of CP-violation by several orders of magnitude. Our Ra EDM collaboration (Argonne, MSU, Kentucky, UST-China) has recently reported a 30 fold improvement over our first limit on the atomic EDM of Ra-225 using laser cooling and trapping techniques. We are now improving our electric field and detection efficiency to perform an even more sensitive experiment next year. Our group is also part of the HeXe collaboration (based in Munich) which aims to improve the atomic EDM limit of Xenon-129 by using modern advances in magnetic shielding and magnetometry using SQUID detection. Finally, in preparation for the planned FRIB beam dump harvesting efforts, we are also exploring alternative techniques that would take advantage of the increased availability of other promising EDM candidate isotopes such as Radon-221/223 and Protactinium-229. Our second main research activity is to build a single atom microscope (SAM) for nuclear astrophysics. Such a detector has the potential to significantly increase the selectivity of recoil separators making extremely challenging and small cross section measurements more feasible. I will report on the precursory atomic measurements that are needed to guide the design of the prototype SAM.

The generalized Brink-Axel (gBA) hypothesis has been around for more than 50 years, and has become the basis of the calculations of cross sections for astrophysically important reactions. The gBA hypothesis predicts that the gamma-ray strength function is independent of the excitation energy of the nucleus, meaning that probability of emitting a gamma-ray of a particular energy should not change based on the excitation energy of the initial or final states. This hypothesis has been tested before, but only at high excitation energies or with only a small number of states included, and has not consistently been found to be valid. However, the gBA hypothesis has not yet been tested on a nucleus that has a high enough level density. A recent study of 238Np data taken at the Oslo Cyclotron Laboratory, focusing on the γ-ray strength function as a function of excitation energy, shows that the gBA hypothesis is valid for transitions between states at high excitation energies below the neutron separation energy as long as there is a high enough level density in order to avoid Porter-Thomas fluctuations.

Helium cryogenic systems used in modern particle accelerators provide proven cost effective and reliable solution to the cooling required for superconducting magnets and superconducting radio frequency cavities. However, due to the required operating temperature, these systems are very energy intensive, requiring around 250 W of input power per 1 W of cooling at 4.5 K (1 atm). And, accelerators which require 2 K helium refrigeration are even more energy intensive requiring 3 to 4 times this input power for the same cooling. Consequently, the impact of the design and selection of components requiring the 2 K (or, 4.5 K) cooling and the enclosures containing supporting hardware for these components is of great importance, not only to the accelerator. Additionally, the helium cryogenic system is comprised of several sub-systems making it a non-trivial system to design and integrate. And being a thermal system, it warrants a very different set of considerations than those of an electrical system. These must be understood by both the user and designers of other accelerator sub-systems to ensure an overall effective, efficient and reliable accelerator system.

The study of nuclear and neutron β decay has played a major role in the development of the electroweak sector of the standard model (SM) of particle physics. Because of the intensity and the variety of β emitters, and the high precision with which β-decay parameters can be measured, β decay remains a competitive probe of new semileptonic physics beyond the SM, complementary to the direct searches for new heavy particles at high-energy colliders. Recently, a new twist has been added to β decay as a precision laboratory to test the invariance of the weak interaction under Lorentz transformations. The possibility to break Lorentz and the closely related CPT symmetry occurs in many "quantum gravity" proposals that attempt to unify the SM with general relativity. The available evidence for the Lorentz invariance of weak decays is, in fact, surprisingly poor. After summarizing the motivation for searches for Lorentz violation, I review the pertinent theoretical framework, and discuss how ongoing and planned β-decay experiments, with isotopes at rest and in flight, can be exploited as sensitive tests of Lorentz invariance. Decay-rate asymmetries and their sidereal-time dependence of correlations that involve the nuclear spin, the direction of the emitted β particle, and the recoil direction of the daughter nucleus allow for relatively simple experiments that give direct bounds on Lorentz violation. I also discuss isotopes that undergo orbital electron capture and allow experiments at high decay rate and low dose.

The merger of two neutron stars (or a neutron star and a black hole) produces extreme astrophysical conditions favorable for producing heavy elements through rapid neutron capture (the r-process), and for emitting gravitational waves that carry information about the equation of state of nuclear matter. I will describe the physics of compact object mergers and their aftermath, and describe detailed simulations that study the neutrino and photon emission, gravitational wave signals, and nucleosynthetic yields. Radioactive r-process isotopes ejected from mergers can give rise to electromagnetic emission similar to, but dimmer and briefer than that of an ordinary supernova. We find that the color and luminosity of these transients (called kilonovae) depend sensitively on the mass and composition of the outflow, and therefore offer a unique opportunity to directly probe the r-process at its production site. Searches for kilonovae in the aftermath of LIGO gravitational wave detections are underway.

The astrophysical reaction rate is very important to determine the element abundance and energy release in star evolution, which in involved in various nucleosynthesis processes. In this presentation, the evaluations of reaction rates are introduced in respect to the nuclear mass and energy level of the reaction system. For the nuclear targets with A≤40, the reaction rates are evaluated one by one, by collecting the experimental data and necessary theoretical results; computing the reaction rates from reaction models, and fitting the calculations to the experimental data. For the nuclear targets with A>40,the reaction rates are evaluated in a systematic way. In particular, complete descriptions of all the reaction channels including all types of direct, pre-equilibrium, and compound mechanisms are taken into account, and the nuclear ingredients required for calculations are extracted from the microscopic nuclear-structure properties and experimental information if available. It is expected that the reasonability and reliability of the reaction rates could be guaranteed by these features of evaluations. Finally, comprehensive database for the evaluated reaction rates involved in various nucleosynthesisis promising.

T2K sends a muon neutrino beam produced by J-PARC in Tokai 295 km across Japan to the Super-Kamiokande detector to study neutrino oscillations via the disappearance of muon neutrinos and the appearance of electron neutrinos. Since the start of operations in 2010, T2K has conclusively observed muon neutrino to electron neutrino oscillations, opening the door to the observation of CP violation in neutrino mixing, and performed the most precise measurement of the muon neutrino disappearance parameters. In a joint analysis between these two modes, T2K placed its first constraints on the CP-violating phase delta. Starting in 2014, T2K has been running primarily with an antineutrino beam in order to study the corresponding antineutrino oscillations, resulting in leading measurements of the muon antineutrino disappearance parameters. Recently, we have performed our first joint analysis of neutrino and antineutrino data. I will discuss these latest results along with the future prospects for the experiment.

In 2015 a rare day-long Type I X-ray burst was observed from accreting neutron star IGR J17062-6143. Long bursts are thought to be produced by thermonuclear burning deep in the star\'s envelope, close to the crust. Bursts lasting many hours are typically attributed to the burning of carbon-rich fuel (superbursts). However, our analysis indicates helium-rich fuel, making this possibly the most powerful helium burst ever observed. Such a powerful burst has a strong impact on the surroundings: we find evidence in the spectrum of X-ray reflection off the accretion disk and of disruption of a corona.

The constant pairing Hamiltonian holds exact solutions worked out by Richardson in the early Sixties [1]. The exact solution of the pairing Hamiltonian regained interest at the end of the Nineties [2]. For loosely-bound systems, the correlations with the continuum spectrum of energy must be considered explicitly. The resonant states with complex energy had been included in the Richardson solutions in Ref. [3]. In this presentation I reformulate the problem of determining the exact eigenenergies of the pairing Hamiltonian with continuum spectrum. The continuum is included through the continuum single particle level density [4]. The solutions of Ref. [3] is recovered by analytic continuation of the equations to the complex energy plane. Applications in Tin and Carbon isotopes are shown. [1] R. W. Richardson, Phys. Lett. 3, 277 (1963). [2] J. von Delft and F. Braun, arXiv:cond-mat/9911058. [3] M. Hasegawa and K. Kaneko, Phys. Rev. C 67, 024304 (2003). [4] R. Id Betan, Phys. Rev. C 85, 064309 (2012).

Fundamentally, nuclear physics arises from the Standard Model. The calculation of key nuclear physics quantities from this underlying theory is extremely challenging because of severe computational complexity. The availability of petascale (and the prospect of exascale) high performance computing is changing this situation by enabling the extension of the numerical techniques of lattice Quantum Chromodynamics (LQCD), applied successfully in particle physics, to the more intricate dynamics of light nuclei. In this talk, I will discuss this revolution and the emerging understanding of hadrons and nuclei directly from the Standard Model. In particular, I will discuss the spectroscopy of light nuclei and recent LQCD calculations of their electroweak interactions and structure.

Nuclear Physics at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) David D. Meyerhofer Physics Division Leader Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Los Alamos NM 87545 Abstract LANSCE is a versatile tool for studying nuclear physics at LANL. The heart of the facility is a high-current, 800 MeV proton beam. The beam is directed towards a variety of spallation targets producing neutrons with energies spanning more than 9 orders of magnitude (from milli-eV to 100’s of MeV). A number of beamlines are used for nuclear physics studies. Higher energy neutrons are used study nuclear structure and neutron-induced reactions, particularly to make nuclear cross-section measurements from fission cross-sections relevant to nuclear power plants and national security. Lower energy neutrons are used to study neutron-capture crosssections relevant to the generation of the heavy elements in the universe, as well as nuclear structure. Ultra-cold neutrons are being used to measure the lifetime of the neutron and will possibly be used for a room-temperature measurement of the neutron electric dipole moment. The protons can be used for radiography without conversion. This talk will describe some of the nuclear physics research at LANSCE, including recent results and those expected in the future.

Large-scale scientific facilities such as charged particle accelerator often require hundreds of devices to communicate over a single network to form large distributed control systems. In an effort to help standardize a network communication protocol for large-scale scientific experiments, two national laboratories, which are Los Alamos National Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory respectively, collaborated to develop EPICS (Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System). It provides the standards and tools necessary to make this kind of communication possible. EPICS is now a set of Open Source software tools, libraries and applications developed collaboratively and used worldwide to create distributed soft real-time control systems for scientific instruments such as a particle accelerators, telescopes and other large scientific experiments. Many scientific and industrial organizations worldwide use EPICS and a group of those organizations are charged with maintaining the EPICS standards, documentation and tools. This talk gives an overview and introduction about EPICS, covers the EPICS system architecture, communication protocol (Channel Access), Input Output Controller (IOC), its process database, and how to solve a problem with EPICS.

Stars freeze. But not all of them. Only some parts of some stars will. In white dwarfs and neutron stars, despite temperatures of millions of degrees, the densities and pressures are great enough to compact nuclei into a crystalline lattice millions of times more dense than any material on earth. Deeper still in neutron stars, near the nuclear saturation density, nuclei begin to touch and rearrange into non-spherical structures called 'nuclear pasta.' To interpret observations of neutron stars the composition and structure of the crystal and pasta layers must be understood, as the microscopic properties of the crust determine the macroscopic properties of the star, such as its thermal and electrical conductivity. At Indiana University, we perform computer simulations of these exotic astromaterials to calculate the physical properties of these stars.

Counting atoms rather than decays has revolutionized the use of long-lived radioisotopes with half-lives between 100 to 100 million years in many domains of our environment at large. Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) made it possible to measure radioisotope-to-stable isotope ratios down to 1e-16, with samples many orders of magnitude smaller than required for decay counting. The prime example is 14C, but many other radioisotopes (e.g. 10Be, 26Al, 36Cl, 41Ca, 129I, actinides) are also being measured with AMS. Because in some cases negative ions suppress very effectively background from stable isobars (e.g. negative ions of 14N are unstable), almost all AMS facility are based on tandem accelerators. In the current talk, the Vienna Environmental Research Accelerator (VERA) AMS facility will be described, which is based on a 3-MV Pelletron tandem accelerator and is in operation at the University of Vienna since 20 years. VERA aims towards measuring ALL long-lived radioisotopes, irrespective of their mass. Recent efforts to arrive at this goal will be discussed, and the versatility of AMS experiments at VERA will be illustrated on a variety of applications ranging from archaeology to astrophysics.

Decay properties of neutron-rich isotopes are an important nuclear physics input in r-process models. In spite of this being a main area of research in low-energy nuclear physics, new experimental data for a large number of isotopes is still necessary to reduce the nuclear physics uncertainty in r-process calculations, and make meaningful comparisons between mode\'s results and new observational data. However, thanks to a new generation of radioactive ion beam facilities large regions of the nuclear chart near and at the r-process path are becoming accessible to experiments. I this talk I will review recent results of beta-decay experiments targeting r-process isotopes at the Radioactive Ion Beam Factory (RIBF) in RIKEN, as well as discussing upcoming experiments to measurement beta-delayed neutron emission probabilities with the new BRIKEN detector setup.