Experimental Nuclear Physics at Stony Brook
Past, Present, and Future
Prof. Gene D. Sprouse
Stony Brook
• Nov 24, 2006 4:00 pm Superconducting
LINAC completed its last experiment at
Stony Brook
• This is an opportune time to review the
history of the Van de Graaff and the
LINAC and the people involved in their
acquisition and operation, and to look into
the future a little.
Superconducting
LINAC 1983
1975
Van de Graaff
1968
1966
Department of Physics 1964
Bob
deZafra
Cliff
Swartz
Juliet
LeeFranzini
Arnie
Feingold
Alec
Pond
Peter
Kahn
Proposal for EN tandem Van
de Graaff to SUNY-Alec Pond
Van de Graaff proposal
s
person
Time Line for proposal
•
•
14 Dec 1962
24 Jan 1963
•
13 Feb 1963
Proposal prepared for EN (6MV) VdG.
NSF issues positive report on Nuc. Physics,
proposing to double funding and make money
available to build facilities
Provost Porter gets positive review
Time Line for proposal
•
•
14 Dec 1962
24 Jan 1963
•
•
13 Feb 1963
15 April 1964
Proposal prepared for EN (6MV) VdG.
NSF issues positive report on Nuc. Physics,
proposing to double funding and make money
available to build facilities
Provost Porter gets positive review
State Legislature appropriates $1.35M for
machine and ½ of the building,
Time Line for proposal
•
•
14 Dec 1962
24 Jan 1963
•
•
13 Feb 1963
15 April 1964
•
27 October 1964
Proposal prepared for EN (6MV) VdG.
NSF issues positive report on Nuc. Physics,
proposing to double funding and make money
available to build facilities
Provost Porter gets positive review
State Legislature appropriates $1.35M for
machine and ½ of the building,
NSF grant for ½ of building ($291k) approved.
Pond
Proposes
going for an
FN(King)
rather than an
EN(Standard).
This is known
as “bait and
switch”
Time Line for proposal
• 14 Dec 1962
Proposal prepared for EN (6MV) VdG.
• 24 Jan 1963
NSF issues positive report on Nuc.
Physics, proposing to double funding and make money
available to build facilities
• 13 Feb 1963
Provost Porter gets positive review
• 15 April 1964
State Legislature appropriates $1.35M
for machine and ½ of the building,
other ½ ($291k) from NSF funding.
• Jan 1 1965
First NSF research grant for $34,000
• Sept 1965
Lin Lee, Dave Fossan hired
• Sept 1966
Peter Paul, Bob Weinberg hired
• Oct 1966
Building started
October-10-1966 (view from top of Harriman Hall toward
Old Chemistry. Trees are site of Grad Chemistry building)
November-10-1966
December-5-1966
February-1-1967
February-1-1967
Completed Van de Graaff building
Trees at right rear of the building will become site of Grad Physics Building
Delivery of the Van de Graaff tank
We all live in a yellow submarine,
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine,
We all live in a yellow submarine,
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine,
Tank entering the building
Current picture of the Van de Graaff
Nuclear Experiment Facilities and Faculty 1965-2007
65
66
Van deGraaff
FACULTY
Robert Weinberg
Linwood Lee
David Fossan
Peter Paul
Robert McGrath
Gene Sprouse
resigned
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
Van de Graaff Physics Programs
Gamma Ray Spectroscopy
Dave Fossan
Giant Dipole Resonance
Peter Paul
Charged Particle Reactions
Bob McGrath
Lin Lee
Nuclear moments and applications
to Solid State, Atomic Physics
Gene Sprouse
Two PDP-9 computers from DEC, each costing $100,000. The “big”
machine had 16k 18 bit memory cells, and the “small” one 8k!
The machine ran 24-7, and we hired people
to operate the machine at night.
Dr. Dan Dietrich, Livermore.
(Metcalf student who did thesis
with van de Graaff)
Dr. Ron Chestnut,
CPE at SLAC
Dr. Phil Goldstone,
Los Alamos
The lab ski trip
Igloo 101
Fred Raab, head of the
LIGO Hanford Observatory
(Metcalf student)
Prof. Steve Rolston,
Assoc. Chairman, Univ of
Md.
Prof. Partha Chowdhury,
Univ of Mass. Lowell
Ehud Dafni, VP Business
Development, CMT
Dr. John Noe,
Laser Teaching Center
Prof. Gunter Schatz,
Univ. Konstanz
• Friedlander Panel on Future of Nuclear Science
NAS/NRC, 1975–77 recommends that two
University Van de Graaffs should get “booster
accelerators”
• Peter Paul motivates the group to compete for
one of these two.
• Collaboration initiated with Cal Tech to build a
superconducting LINAC at Stony Brook(We
could not buy LINAC like vdG)
• Paul and Sprouse stop physics research to
devote full time to the project
To expedite the transfer of the superconducting resonator
technology to Stony Brook, Sprouse spends a semester at
Cal Tech.
Whose car is this??
Collaboration with Cal Tech to build
superconducting resonators
• There were competing development
proposals to NSF from:
– Stanford(Hanna, Glavish and Ben Zvi)
– Stony Brook(Paul and Sprouse)
• Stony Brook won!
Testing the Prototype superconducting
resonator with beam
Ilan BenZvi,
Director of the
Accelerator
Test Facility,
BNL
Next step: Test a prototype module
containing 3 resonators
What is the difference between these two proposals?
The advanced computer control system of the
accelerator was developed primarily by a PhD. Student
Dr. Alfred Scholldorf,
VP for development at Reuters
Joseph M. Brennan,
AGS Department, BNL
Mike Brennan and
Chen Chia-erh,
work on the beam sweeper
Chen later becomes
President of Beijing
University and President of
the Chinese Physical
Society
Linac room before
400 W Helium Refrigerator Installation
Professor Miriam
Rafailovich, Director,
Garcia Center,
Materials Science
Department, Stony
Brook
Helium gas storage tank delivery
Installation of Bob McGrath’s
scattering chamber “big mac”
Linac room before
Linac room after
•
SCIENCE Volume 291, Number 5506, 9 Feb
2001, p. 962.
Copyright © 2001 by The American Association
for the Advancement of Science.
•
NUCLEAR PHYSICS:
Nuclei Crash Through The Looking-Glass
David Voss
Gloves do it. Toupees do it. Even twists of DNA
do it. And now, for the first time, physicists have
discovered that atomic nuclei come in right- and
left-handed models, too. In the 5 February issue
of Physical Review Letters (PRL), a team of
researchers from the State University of New
York (SUNY), Yale, the University of
Tennessee, and Notre Dame reports
observations of rapidly spinning nuclei morphing
into mirror-image forms. In the process, the
physicists also uncovered solid evidence that a
long-disputed feature of nuclear anatomy really
does exist.
•
•
Starosta, Fossan, Koike,
LaFosse, Beausang, and
Vaman
Nuclear Lifetimes of Fr Isotopes
Made at Stony Brook
Boulder
205
221
(work done with Luis Orozco, now at UMd.)
1.E+02
1.E+00
1.E-02
1.E-04
1.E-06
Isotope
229
225
217
213
209
1.E-08
201
Lifetime(seconds)
1.E+04
Francium Atomic Level Scheme
(work done with Luis Orozco, now at UMd.)
9s
107.53±0.90 ns.
83.5±1.5 ns8p
3/2
8p1/2
149.3±3.5 ns
8s
67.7+-2.9 ns
7d5/2
7d3/2
73.60+-0.3 ns
53.48 +- 0.33 ns
6d5/2
6d3/2
7p3/2
21.02+-0.11 ns
7p1/2
29.45+-0.11 ns
trapping transition
718 nm
Found at Stony
Brook
Still unknown
7s
Dave Fossan
Bob McGrath
Lin Lee
Peter Paul
Gene Sprouse
Aniko Paul
Dot Lee
Ann Fossan
Carolyn McGrath
H’y Sprouse
DAVID B. FOSSAN (1934-2003)
21 Ph.D. students, 17 postdoctorates,
260 refereed publications
First recipient of “Chancellor’s Award for
Excellence in Research and Creative Activity”
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
1. Neutron Total Cross Sections of Be, 10B, B, C and O, D.B. Fossan and
R.L. Walter, W.E. Wilson and H.H. Barschall, Phys. Rev. 123, 209 (1961).
2. Differential Cross Sections for the T(p,n)3He Reaction, W.E. Wilson,
R.L. Walter and D.B. Fossan, Nucl. Phys. 27, 421 (1961).
3. Rotational-State Lifetimes, D.B. Fossan and B. Herskind, Phys. Letters 2, 155 (1962).
4. Half-Lives of Two Excited States in 172Yb, B. Herskind and D.B. Fossan, Nucl. Phys. 40, 489
(1963).
5. Half-Lives of First Excited 2+ States (150<A<190), D.B. Fossan and B. Herskind, Nucl. Phys. 40,
24 (1963).
6. Protons from the 63Cu(p,p) Reaction, N. Cindro, D.B. Fossan and D. Zastavnikovic, Nucl. Phys. 50,
281 (1964).
7. Small-Angle Elastic Scattering of Neutrons and the Electric Polarizability of the Neutron,
D.B. Fossan and M. Walt, Phys. Rev. Letters 12, 672 (1964).
.
.
.
259. Signature inversion in doubly odd 124La H. J. Chantler, E. S. Paul, A. J. Boston, C. J. Chiara,
P. T. W. Choy, A. Fletcher, D. B. Fossan, R. V.F. Janssens, N. S. Kelsall, T. Koike, D. R. LaFosse,
P. J. Nolan, D. G. Sarantites, D. Seweryniak, J. F. Smith, K. Starosta, R. Wadsworth, and A. N. Wilson,
Phys. Rev. C 66, 014311 (2002)
260. Observation of excited states in the near-drip-line nucleus 125Pr A.N.Wilson, D.R.LaFosse,
J.F.Smith, C.J.Chiara, A.J.Boston, M.P.Carpenter, H.J.Chantler, R.Charity, P.T.W.Choy, M.Devlin,
A.M.Fletcher, D.B.Fossan, R.V.F.Janssens, D.G.Jenkins, N.S.Kelsall, F.G.Kondev, T.Koike, E.S.Paul,
D.G.Sarantites, D.Seweryniak, K.Starosta, and R.Wadsworth, Phys.Rev. C66 , 021305 (2002)
Dave Fossan, one of the creators
of “Gammasphere”
NSF Funding of Nuclear Structure Laboratory
$1,000,000
∫ = $41.2Μ
Year
2007
2004
2001
1998
1995
1992
1989
1986
1983
1980
1977
1974
1971
1968
$0
1965
Funding/year
$2,000,000
Department Visiting Committee
Comments on Nuclear Physics
The Future:
Linac:
Beijing Atomic Energy Institute wishes to
acquire the LINAC as a booster for their tandem.
Van de Graaff:
MARIACHI (Cosmic ray detectors for
outreach to high schools)
Tandem Teaching Lab (experiments for
advanced laboratory, and C14 dating for
outreach)
Detector Research and Development
A. Deshpande, A. Drees, T.K.
Hemmick, B. Jacak, M. Marx
Mariachi Workshops
Accelerator Mass Spectrometry
• AMS is well established for 14C, 10Be, 26Al, 36Cl,
41Ca, 129I.
• 14C is the familiar “dating” isotope for biological
samples.
• Living materials contain 14C/12C~10-12
• After death, ratio decays t1/2=5730 yr
• Accelerator used to strip ions to +3 charge state,
eliminating molecules.
• 12C via beam current, 14C via count rate
Proposed Lab Layout:
MARIACHI
14C
Grad Lab
Det R&D
Winder
Concluding remarks
• Alec Pond’s vision has largely been realized:
The purchase of the Van de Graaff was one of
several statements that Stony Brook intended to
be a major research university.
• Peter Paul’s vision to go after the LINAC has
paid off well.
• Peter also played a pivotal role in securing RHIC
for BNL.
• The Van de Graaff will continue as a productive
educational and outreach tool.
Personal remarks
• Came to Stony Brook, January 1970
• Will go on 5 year leave, starting January 2007 to
become Editor in Chief of the American Physical
Society.
• I have worked hard for Stony Brook, and Stony
Brook has been good to me. I’ve enjoyed my
interactions with my colleagues and the
outstanding SB students, especially the last 4
years teaching Honors Physics 141-2.
• My new job is different, with new challenges,
and I’m excited about taking them on.
The
The End
End
For material used in this presentation, many thanks to:
Peter Kahn, Lin Lee, and John Noe