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European
Commission
Community research
Frontiers in
Nuclear Physics
Project repor t
RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURES
IMPROVING THE HUMAN RESEARCH POTENTIAL AND
THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC KNOWLEDGE BASE
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Interested in European research?
RTD info is our quarterly magazine keeping you in touch
with main developments (results, programmes, events, etc.).
It is available in English, French and German. A free
sample copy or a free subscription can be obtained from:
Directorate-General for Research
Communication Unit
European Commission
Rue de la Loi/Wetstraat 200
B-1049 Brussels
Fax (32-2) 29-58220
E-mail: research@cec.eu.int
Internet: http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/rtdinfo.html
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
Directorate-General for Research
Programme: ‘Improving the human research
potential and the socio-economic knowledge base’
Contact: C. Warden
European Commission
Rue de la Loi/Wetstraat 200 (SDME 4/36)
B-1049 Brussels
Fax (32-2) 29-63270
E-mail: campbell.warden@cec.eu.int
Website: http://www.cordis.lu/improving
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European Commission
Research Infrastructures
Frontiers in Nuclear Physics
The European Round-Table for Nuclear Physics
by Professor J. Vervier, Round-Table Coordinator
Editor: Campbell Warden (European Commission)
Improving the human research potential and the socio-economic knowledge base
Directorate-General for Research
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LEGAL NOTICE
Neither the European Commission nor any person acting on behalf of the Commission is responsible
for the use which might be made of the following information.
A great deal of additional information on the European Union is available on the Internet.
It can be accessed through the Europa server (http://europa.eu.int).
Cataloguing data can be found at the end of this publication.
Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2000
ISBN 92-894-0026-9
© European Communities, 2000
Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged.
Printed in Belgium
PRINTED ON WHITE CHLORINE-FREE PAPER
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Table of Contents
Page
5
FOREWORD
7
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
9
1. NUCLEAR PHYSICS:
THE SCIENCE AND ITS APPLICATIONS
15
2. PRESENT EUROPEAN COMMISSION
SUPPORT TO RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURES
IN NUCLEAR PHYSICS
17
3. ACHIEVEMENTS
23
4. CONCLUSIONS AND PERSPECTIVES
24
LOCATION AND DATA OF RESEARCH
INFRASTRUCTURES IN NUCLEAR PHYSICS
26
ACCESS TO RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURES
3
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Figure 1. The hierarchy of decreasing dimensions, from galaxies (lower left) to quarks (lower right)
through the earth, molecules, atoms and nuclei. Nuclear Physics is relevant to the description of all
these “objects”.
4
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FOREWORD
Many fields of European research are underpinned by access to world-class research infrastructures.
However, the majority of such facilities are owned by National Government agencies and are open
mainly to their national user community. In view of this, successive editions of the ‘Framework
Programme’ (FP) for Community R&D have supported transnational access to a selected group of
outstanding research infrastructures.
This has been widened to include the funding of a series of Round-Tables which have brought
together the operators and representatives of the user community in a particular class of facilities
around a common research theme, in this case Nuclear Physics. These Round-Tables have been much
more effective than ‘usual’ interactions between scientists because they have guaranteed the
participation of the full range of institutional facilities and the representatives of the users, avoiding
obvious problems of narrow or partisan actions. Their mission has focused on finding and
implementing the solutions to problems of common interest and seeding new transnational
collaborations.
The European Community (EC) support to these actions has made a major contribution to the
development of Nuclear Physics within Europe for the last ten years. This situation has continued
under the present Framework Programme where more than 14 million Euro have so far been allocated
to such actions. The present brochure has been prepared by the Coordinator of the Concerted Action
and Thematic Network dealing with Nuclear Physics, with the help of the supported Research
Infrastructures and of the Nuclear Physics European Collaboration Committee. It aims to provide
useful information both to the researchers active in this field and to those responsible for developing
new research infrastructure in this area.
I am very pleased to present this excellent example of how multi-national research cooperation has
developed for those who are working in fields where such a highly developed culture of cross-border
co-operation does not yet normally exist. The EC wishes to continue to encourage such development.
Therefore it will make available during the period 2000-2003 at least 180 million Euro to support
top-class research infrastructure through the activity ‘Enhancing Access to Research Infrastructures’
within FP 5.
Manuela Soares
Acting Director
Improving the Human Research Potential and the Socio-economic Knowledge Base
5
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3rd
4th
5th
Human Capital
and Mobility
Training and Mobility
of Researchers
Improving the Human
Potential
Total budget (Meuro)
1.8
9.62
14.84
Number of Research
Infrastructures
4
10
12
Number of RTD projects
0
4
5
Action
Table 1: Support of the European Community to the Research Infrastructures in Nuclear Physics
Name
City
Country
Acronym
Louvain-la-Neuve
Belgium
CRC
Caen
France
GANIL
Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung
Darmstadt
Germany
GSI
Accelerator Laboratory
Jyväskylä
Finland
JYFL
Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro
Padova
Italy
LNL
ISOLDE collaboration, CERN
Genève
Switzerland
ISOLDE
Institut de Recherches Subatomiques
Strasbourg
France
IReS
Kernfysisch Versneller Instituut
Groningen
The Netherlands
KVI
The Svedberg Laboratory
Uppsala
Sweden
TSL
Forschungszentrum Jülich
Jülich
Germany
FZJ
Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati
Frascati
Italy
LNF
European Center for Theoretical Studies
in Nuclear Physics and Related Areas
Trento
Italy
ECT*
Centre de Recherches du Cyclotron
Grand Accélérateur National d'Ions Lourds
Table 2. Research Infrastructures in Nuclear Physics supported by the European Community under Transnational Access contracts.
6
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Nuclear Physics, the science of the atomic nucleus, is a very active field of research within European Science.
It has a deep influence on our Society, both through the fundamental insight that this discipline provides
about the matter that makes up our universe and its origin, as well as through the numerous applications
of Nuclear Physics. Because of its very nature, Nuclear Physics needs large Research Infrastructures, and
especially big accelerators, whose size and cost have been increasing throughout the discipline’s history. It
is thus imperative to optimise their use by providing qualified, interested scientists, from all over Europe, with
access to them through appropriate financial support, thereby making these Research Infrastructures truly
European facilities.
The support of the European Community to the Research Infrastructures in Nuclear Physics has increased
continuously throughout the various Framework Programmes (FP). This started with Human Capital and
Mobility within the third FP, continuing with Training and Mobility of Researchers within the fourth FP, and
extending in the Improving Human Potential within the fifth FP. This support has taken several forms:
• improving the access of European researchers to the Research Infrastructures through Transnational
Access contracts;
• encouraging Research and Technical Development (RTD) projects common to several Research
Infrastructures;
• networking the Research Infrastructures through Round Tables, Concerted Actions and Thematic
Networks.
This increased support can be expressed by numbers, as shown in Table 1 which includes:
• the total budgets allocated by the European Community to the three classes of actions just mentioned;
• the numbers of Research Infrastructures in Nuclear Physics with Transnational Access contracts;
• the numbers of RTD projects funded.
The Research Infrastructures in Nuclear Physics supported by Transnational Access contracts are listed in
Table 2 together with their acronyms. They have been, and will continue to be associated within a
Concerted Action, “Frontiers In Nuclear physics and Astrophysics (FINA)” until September 30, 2000 and
a Thematic Network “Frontiers In Nuclear PHYsics (FINUPHY)” starting October 1, 2000.
The purpose of the present brochure is to underline the benefits that European Community support to
Research Infrastructures in Nuclear Physics has brought to European Science. The first part summarises
the place of Nuclear Physics within our Society, both as a Science and through its Applications. In the
second part, the European Community support to the Research Infrastructures in Nuclear Physics within
both the Training and Mobility of Researchers and Improving Human Potential programmes is described
in some detail. The third section outlines the achievements that were made possible by this support. Some
perspectives within the Fifth Framework Programme and beyond are presented in the final section.
The present brochure has been prepared by the Coordinator of FINA and FINUPHY, with the help of the
Nuclear Physics European Collaboration Committee (NuPECC) and of the Research Infrastructures in
Nuclear Physics. It is a pleasure for me to present this publication, in the hope that it will be of interest,
not only to the scientific community, but also to the funding agencies and policy makers.
Jean Vervier
Coordinator of FINA and FINUPHY
7
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Figure 2. The Nuclear
Chart in a diagram
where the numbers of
protons Z and
neutrons N of nuclei
are plotted on the
vertical and the
horizontal axes,
respectively.
Further details on this
diagram are given in
Chapter 1.
Figure 3. Different
exotic shapes that
nuclei may have
when rotating with
very high angular
velocities around the
indicated axes.
8
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1. NUCLEAR PHYSICS:
THE SCIENCE AND ITS APPLICATIONS
The world around us is made of atoms and their combinations, i.e. molecules. At the heart of atoms
is the atomic nucleus, a very small entity (about one over ten thousand times the atomic dimension)
which however contains more than 99.8% of the mass of the atom. Nuclear Physics is the Science of
this nucleus, which attempts to understand its structure, its stability (and the limits of the latter), its
various phases and shapes, its interactions with the surrounding world, etc. We know since 1932 that
the nucleus is made of collections of two entities: the proton, the nucleus of the simplest atom,
hydrogen, with a positive electric charge; the neutron, an electrically neutral particle, which is similar
to the proton in many aspects. We also know, since 1964, that the protons and the neutrons, which
are collectively called nucleons, are themselves made of more fundamental, and much smaller,
entities, the quarks and the gluons. This hierarchy of decreasing dimensions is illustrated in Figure 1.
It should be noted that the quarks that make the nucleons, i.e. the so-called “up” (u) and “down” (d)
quarks, are just 2 members of a larger family that includes a total of 6 quarks. These can be combined
into a wide variety of particles, other than the nucleons, which are called “hadrons", and which
comprises two subfamilies, the so-called “mesons” (a quark and an antiquark) and “baryons” (3
quarks).
Although incredibly small, the atomic nucleus is highly relevant for the understanding of the world
around us, and even for the very existence of the human beings. Indeed, the energy that powers all
stars we observe in the sky, and in particular the solar energy from which we ultimately live, is of
nuclear origin. The synthesis of all the elements in the Universe, and in particular of the matter our
bodies are made of, has occurred – and is still occurring – through nuclear reactions. We live on
continental plates, which are “floating” and drifting on more-or-less viscous material, whose
properties are determined by the heat generated by the decay of radioactive nuclei within the earth.
Many other examples could be given of the relevance of nuclear phenomena to our environment.
Understanding the atomic nucleus is a challenging task, for two main reasons. The first reason is that
the forces that bind together the nucleons in the nucleus are very complex. This is unlike the electric
force which acts between the nucleus and its surrounding electrons inside the atom, or the
gravitational force which explains the properties of the planetary orbitals within the solar system and,
ultimately, of the Universe as a whole. The so-called nuclear forces between the nucleons are
themselves the subject of intensive studies, in order to understand their properties in terms of the
constituents of the nucleons, the quarks and the gluons, and their interactions. The second reason is
that the number of constituents of the nucleus is neither very small, i.e. more than two, nor very large,
i.e. up to about 300. This implies that the methods which have been developed to study physical
systems with either very small or very large numbers of components – for example the atom and the
solar system (small), the solids and the liquids in condensed matter physics (large) – are not
applicable to the atomic nucleus. A further complication in the study of the nucleus is that its
observed properties depend on the scale of this observation. If the “microscope” used can only “see”
objects down to dimensions comparable to the size of the nucleons, the latter dominate the
interpretation of the nuclear structure; if however the scale of this observation is reduced by one to
two orders of magnitude, the quarks and the gluons start to play an ever increasing role.
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One of the main challenges that Nuclear Physics is presently facing is to determine, and understand,
the limits of nuclear stability. This is illustrated in Figure 2, in which the numbers of neutrons N and
protons Z of a nucleus are plotted on the horizontal and the vertical axes, respectively. The black
points correspond to stable (or nearly stable) nuclei, which are found in Nature. The coloured points
are the presently known radioactive nuclei, i.e.: those emitting negatively charged electrons (the socalled ß- emitters, blue points); those emitting positively charged electrons, i.e. positrons, or capturing
atomic electrons ( ß+ – or EC – emitters, red points); those emitting alpha particles (α-emitters, yellow
points). The blue and orange lines, i.e. the proton shoreline and neutron shoreline, correspond to the
limits of the nuclei which, according to the present understanding of nuclear structure, should exist,
even for very short times (i.e. down to milliseconds or lower): outside these limits, lies the “sea of
instability” ("nuclei prohibited") where nuclei immediately disintegrate by emitting nucleons or
heavier particles.
It is clear from Figure 2 that, between the known radioactive nuclei and the limits of nuclear stability,
a large number of nuclei are presently unknown. This is the “terra incognita” (unknown land) of
Nuclear Physics, which has about twice as many nuclei than presently known. Furthermore, the
“shorelines” of this unknown land, i.e. the coloured lines in Figure 2, are themselves quite uncertain,
in particular for heavy elements. Different “models” which reproduce the properties of the known
(black and coloured) nuclei, when extrapolated to the limits of stability, yield very different answers.
The study of these unknown nuclei, and the understanding of their properties and of the limits of their
existence, is one of the main topics that Nuclear Physics is extensively studying at the present time.
We already have some glimpse on the kind of new phenomena one can expect to find in this “terra
incognita”. One of them is the discovery of elements heavier than those that are presently known,
i.e. beyond the present limits at the upper right corner of Figure 2. The existence of such very heavy
– or even “superheavy” – elements has been predicted more than thirty years ago, and some very
recent results suggest that we are very close to entering into this region. New experimental
developments, and in particular the availability of very intense Radioactive Nuclear Beams, bring
hope that we could penetrate very deep into this unknown region.
Another phenomenon is the existence of medium and heavy “halo” nuclei, i.e. nuclei made of a
dense “core” surrounded by a “halo” of more diluted matter, mostly neutrons. The discovery of such
“halo” phenomena within very light nuclei came out as a complete surprise in the mid-eighties, and
they are expected to be found in heavier nuclei. Other examples of possible new findings in the
“terra incognita” of Nuclear Physics could be given. However, as usual in Science, the most important
ones will probably be those which are completely unexpected at the present time.
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There is an additional reason to explore the above-mentioned “terra incognita”. As noted above,
Nuclear Physics is basic to the understanding of the origin of the energy that powers all objects seen
in the Universe, stars, galaxies, exploding stars, etc. It is also crucial to understand the synthesis of
the elements that are present in the Universe, constituting our bodies and the entire world around
us, i.e. the ways these elements were made. The corresponding scientific discipline, which is very
close to Nuclear Physics, is called Nuclear Astrophysics. It is believed that, in this so-called
nucleosynthesis, the properties of radioactive nuclei belonging to the “terra incognita” are very
crucial. Their investigation is thus a prerequisite for understanding how an important part of the
elements present in the Universe have been synthesised. Examples of current problems in this field,
illustrated in Figure 2, are the locations of the so-called “stellar rapid proton capture path” and
“stellar r-process path”.
There are many other challenges that Nuclear Physics is presently facing. One is the understanding
of the behaviour of nuclei when they are rotating at incredibly large angular velocities, the so-called
high-spin state nuclear physics, and of the exotic shapes that the nucleus may have when rotating
with such velocities, as illustrated in Figure 3. Another one is the determination of the limiting
“temperature", i.e. internal energy, a nucleus can support without breaking apart. Before reaching
this limit, the average distances between the nucleons in the nucleus (which are normally close to
the range of their interactions as in a liquid) may get larger, and the nucleus should undergo a
“phase transition", analogous to the liquid-gas phase transition wherein a liquid evaporates into a
gas. This transition is presently the subject of intense investigations.
Still another challenge is the investigation of what happens when a nucleus is brought to a state
with very high temperatures and densities, in which case it may undergo another “phase transition”
and be transformed into a completely new phase of matter, the so-called quark-gluon plasma. Such
a state may have been the fate of the Universe in its very first instants, and tentative evidences
suggesting its existence have recently been obtained at CERN, Genève, Switzerland. Other areas of
research in Nuclear Physics use high-energy high-intensity electron beams to unravel the internal
substructure of the nucleus and of its constituents, the nucleons, in terms of quarks, as well as highenergy high-intensity proton beams to study the properties of the other “hadrons” than the nucleons,
i.e. the “mesons” and the “baryons”. All these topics and others are presently the subjects of intense
research worldwide.
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Figure 4. The Impact and
Applications of Nuclear
Physics to neighbouring
Sciences and Technologies.
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Nuclear Physics has many applications in everyday life and to the Society, which are summarised in
Figure 4. One is related to the human health, and is called Nuclear Medicine and Radiobiology.
Cancer can be cured, or at least mastered, with nuclear radiations, initially atomic X-rays and nuclear
γ-rays, and, in the recent more advanced methods, protons, neutrons and heavy ions produced by the
accelerators used in Nuclear Physics research. Dedicated programmes are presently conducted along
these new lines all around the world, especially for proton- and heavy-ion cancer therapy. Nuclear
methods provide a precious help to medical diagnosis through imaging techniques of the inside of
the human body using nuclear radiations emitted by radioactive sources, either external or internal.
These imaging techniques, i.e. the Single Photon Emission Computer Tomography, the Positron
Emission Tomography, the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging, etc have become routine techniques
in today's Hospitals. Specialised centres have been built all around the world to produce the
radioactive isotopes necessary for these imaging techniques, for example those emitting positively
charged electrons (the red elements of Figure 2) for the Positron Cameras, using nuclear reactors and
charged-particle accelerators.
Nuclear Physics has also a strong impact on Industry. The behaviour of various materials submitted
to nuclear radiations can be tested with particle beams and with neutrons. In particular, the radiation
damages induced by cosmic rays in electronic and computer components aboard satellites and high
altitude planes can be studied by this method. Beneficial modifications can be induced in certain
materials by nuclear radiations. For example, new more resistant protheses and new high-temperature
superconductors can be developed by this method. Surgical instruments and foodstuffs can be
sterilised with nuclear radiations.
Environmental Studies and Protection also benefit from nuclear techniques: these yield precious
information on global oceanic currents, paleotemperatures and paleoclimates, groundwater motions
and deep sea sedimentation, etc. Energy production is another important application of Nuclear
Physics. Electricity can be produced using the fission and, in the future, the fusion energies. Long-lived
nuclear wastes produced by the fission reactors will in the future be burned by Accelerator Driven
Systems. Energy Amplifiers, using accelerator-subcritical reactor combinations, could potentially be
developed to produce energy from fission under more favourable conditions than with the presently
running nuclear reactors. Nuclear Physics has also a strong impact on other fields of Science: on
Nuclear Astrophysics, as mentioned before, but also on Atomic and Condensed Matter Physics, on
Particle Physics and Fundamental Interactions, on Art and Archaeology, and so on. All these
applications rely on nuclear techniques, which accordingly need to be further developed.
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•The 12 Research Infrastructures in Nuclear Physics listed in Table 2
•2 Research Infrastructures in Ground-based Astronomy
•JIVE: the Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe, Dwingeloo, The Netherlands
•IAC: Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, Tenerife, Spain
•Representatives of the users of the Research Infrastructures in Nuclear Physics and Ground Astronomy
•Representatives of NuPECC
Table 3: Members of the FINA Concerted Action.
Name
Number of European
laboratories involved
Aim
EURISOL
10
A preliminary design study of the next-generation
European ISOL Radioactive Nuclear Beam Facility
CHARGE BREEDING
7
Charge Breeding of Intense Radioactive Beams
R3B
8
A next-generation experimental setup for Reaction
studies with Relativistic Radioactive Beams
EXOTAG
9
Studies of Exotic Nuclei using Tagging Spectrometers
INNOVATIVE ECRIS
5
Electron Cyclotron Resonance Ion Sources for
producing Multiply Charged Ions
Table 4: RTD projects in Nuclear Physics supported by the European Community under the programme Improving
Human Potential.
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2. PRESENT EUROPEAN COMMUNITY SUPPORT TO
RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURES IN NUCLEAR PHYSICS
Most major European Research Infrastructures in Nuclear Physics are presently supported by the
European Community under Transnational Access contracts. They are listed in Table 2, and they can
be classified under the following categories. A large part of these Research Infrastructures (the first
seven in Table 2) devote most of their scientific programme to the study of nuclei under extreme
conditions, i.e. with an unusual composition in terms of proton and neutron numbers (the “terra
incognita” of Figure 2), or rotating at very high angular velocities (with the exotic shapes of Figure 3),
or at high “temperatures” where phase transitions should occur (e.g. the predicted liquid-gas phase
transition). Some of them, i.e. CRC, GANIL, GSI and ISOLDE (see Table 2), produce Radioactive Nuclear
Beams to carry out their researches, i.e. beams of unstable nuclei (the “coloured” nuclei in Figure 2).
In this field, Europe has played a pioneering role and is presently the worldwide leader. Other
Research Infrastructures use light ions to study the nucleus, and form the Light Ion Facility Europe
(LIFE) network: KVI with the AGOR superconducting cyclotron; TSL and FZJ with the storage and
cooler rings, CELSIUS and COSY, respectively.
All Research Infrastructures mentioned so far have had a Transnational Access contract under the
Training and Mobility of Researchers part of the fourth Framework Programme, which have been
extended under the Improving Human Potential part of the fifth Framework Programme. Two further
Research Infrastructures are also supported by a similar contract under Improving Human Potential,
i.e. (see Table 2) LNF and ECT*. At LNF, the DAPHNE facility is used to study the properties of the
hadrons. ECT* is an Infrastructural Center of Competence, wherein theoretical nuclear physics is
extensively studied; it is an important support and inspirer to the experimental work carried out in the
other Research Infrastructures. As a result, a total of twelve Research Infrastructures in Nuclear
Physics, spread all around Europe, presently have a Transnational Access contract under Improving
Human Potential.
These Research Infrastructures, together with other European Nuclear Physics laboratories, are
associated within common Research and Technical Development (RTD) projects, also supported by
the European Community. Some of them deal with techniques to improve the facilities producing and
using Radioactive Nuclear Beams, with the development of special instrumentation like a large
acceptance spectrometer, or with the study of the methods to produce neutron-rich radioactive beams
(i.e. beams of the “blue” nuclei in Figure 2). Others aim at the construction of new beam lines or at
the development of techniques to cool and trap radioactive nuclei. Within the Improving Human
Potential part of the fifth Framework Programme, five new RTD projects supported by the European
Community and involving most of the Research Infrastructures mentioned above, together with other
laboratories, have started working in 2000. One, called EURISOL, aims at a preliminary design study
of the next-generation European Radioactive Nuclear Beam Facility using the so-called ISOL method:
such a facility will have performances which will be unique in Europe, and in the world, and will
extend and amplify, beyond 2010, the exciting work presently carried out by the first-generation
facilities listed above, in various scientific disciplines, nuclear physics, nuclear astrophysics and their
applications. Other new RTD projects, listed in Table 4, will develop advanced techniques that will be
extremely useful, both for the operation of the running Research Infrastructures and for the future
projects like EURISOL.
The cooperation between the Research Infrastructures in Nuclear Physics, as exemplified by the
common RTD projects, has been strongly encouraged by the European Community through the
organisation of Round Tables where representatives of these Research Infrastructures met together.
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These Round Tables were extended within a Concerted Action called “Frontiers in Nuclear Physics and
Astrophysics” (FINA), whose composition is given in Table 3. Within its members, NuPECC, the “Nuclear
Physics European Collaboration Committee”, is an Expert Committee of the European Science
Foundation, which started working in 1988, and which aims at strengthening European Collaboration
in nuclear science through the promotion of Nuclear Physics and its trans-disciplinary uses and
applications. NuPECC has investigated in depth, at two occasions in 1991 and 1997, the main
challenges which Nuclear Physics is facing and which are mentioned in Chapter 1 above; it has issued
two reports on them, accompanied by recommendations on how to proceed. NuPECC has also reviewed
the Impact and Applications of Nuclear Science in Europe (Figure 4), and summarised its findings in a
third report whose substance is synthesised in Chapter 1 above. The role of NuPECC within the
Concerted Action FINA is to maintain a watching brief on the scientific needs for access to the Research
Infrastructures in Nuclear Physics.
The work of the Concerted Action FINA will be extended, within Improving Human Potential, by a
Thematic Network called “Frontiers in Nuclear Physics” (FINUPHY). This will bring together:
representatives of the twelve Research Infrastructures in Nuclear Physics supported within Improving
Human Potential and listed in Table 2; six representatives of their users chosen in order to achieve a
good balance between the various European countries (including Central Europe) and different
disciplines (i.e. Nuclear Physics and its applications); representatives of NuPECC. The work programme
of FINUPHY, which will start on October 1, 2000, will be outlined in Chapter 4 below.
Figure 5. The Louvain Edinburgh Detector Array
(LEDA) used at the CRC, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium,
by teams from Belgium, the United Kingdom and Italy,
to study nuclear reactions at work in explosive stellar
events using Radioactive Nuclear Beams.
16
Figure 6. Results obtained at GANIL, Caen, France, on the
decay of the nucleus 12Be into two “halo” nuclei 6He. The
data suggest that the nucleons of 12Be arrange themselves
into “clusters” of nucleons, i.e. two alpha-particles,
surrounded by a “cloud” of four neutrons which bind them
together.
Such a configuration is analogous to a molecule, whose
atoms are bound together by “clouds” of electrons.
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3. ACHIEVEMENTS
Some highlights in Nuclear Physics and Nuclear Astrophysics achieved during experiments whose
participants were at least partially supported by a Transnational Access contract are given below.
These are just a few examples of recent achievements, and do not represent an exhaustive list of the
many results obtained.
At the “Centre de Recherches du Cyclotron (CRC)”, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, important experiments
in Nuclear Astrophysics using Radioactive Nuclear Beams were carried out by mixed teams involving
scientists from the University of Edinburgh, the University of Catania and from 3 Belgian universities,
Louvain-la-Neuve, Bruxelles and Leuven. They yielded crucial data to understand the mechanisms of
spectacular explosive stellar events like novae and X-ray bursts. One of the new instruments used for
these experiments is shown in Figure 5, which displays the Louvain Edinburgh Detector Array (LEDA),
an annular position-sensitive charged particle detector developed in common by the teams of
Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, and Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
At the “Grand Accélérateur National d'Ions Lourds (GANIL)”, Caen, France, important discoveries on
the properties of very exotic nuclei in the nuclear chart depicted in Figure 2 have been achieved. These
are, for example: the properties of the “halo” nucleus 6He; the non-existence of the very neutron-rich
nucleus 28O (i.e. information on the “neutron shoreline” in Figure 2); the discovery of the very protonrich nucleus 48Ni (i.e. information on the “proton shoreline” in Figure 2), which also plays an important
role in the nucleosynthesis of light proton-rich nuclei through the so-called stellar rapid proton
capture path (Figure 2); the investigation of “cluster” aspects of nuclei (Figure 6). The “phase
transitions” mentioned in Chapter 1 have also been investigated, in particular the “vaporisation” of
nuclei into their elementary constituents when brought to very high temperatures, i.e. very high
excitation energies.
The “Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI)”, Darmstadt, Germany, has also made important
contributions to our present knowledge of the nuclear chart of Figure 2. These include: the discovery
of the heaviest elements (at the upper right corner), most recently the Z = 112 element, and the study
of their chemical properties, for example the Z = 106 element; the production and investigation of
new exotic nuclei, very deep into the “terra incognita”, both on the proton-rich (100Sn) and the
neutron-rich (78Ni) sides. As an example, Figure 7 represents the so-called decay scheme of the Z = 112
element, together with some of the devices used for its discovery. Other recent achievements are: new
insights on the fission of heavy elements and the structure of “halo” nuclei; investigation of the liquidgas phase transition in nuclear matter mentioned in Chapter 1; studies related to the transmutation
of long-lived nuclear wastes produced by the fission reactors, i.e. one of the applications of Nuclear
Physics listed in Chapter 1.
The GSI has also made important contributions to the medical applications of nuclear physics
mentioned in Chapter 1. These include the start-up, in 1998, of the first tumour therapy in Europe
using heavy ions accelerated by the Heavy Ion Synchrotron SIS, with a biology based treatment
planning. Up to now, more than 50 patients have been treated very successfully with high energy
carbon beams from SIS, and the construction of a dedicated therapy unit, using this method, at the
Radiological Clinic of the University of Heidelberg, Germany, is in preparation. Figure 8 illustrates the
use of this method.
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Figure 7. The decay scheme of element Z =
112, the heaviest element produced so far at
the GSI, Darmstadt, Germany, together with
some of the devices used for its discovery.
Page 18
Figure 8.
Illustration of the
cancer therapy
programme using
heavy ions
carried out at the
GSI, Darmstadt,
Germany.
The figure
displays the
distribution of
the radiation
dose delivered by
a carbon beam
to a brain tumor
in the first
patient that has
been treated.
Figure 9. The EUROBALL array of gamma-ray detectors, built and operated by a European collaboration,
and used so far at the LNL, Padova, Italy and the IreS, Strasbourg, France.
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Two recent breakthrough achievements of the “Accelerator Laboratory (JYFL)”, Jyväskylä, Finland, are
as follows. Very innovative techniques for the separation, identification and study of very exotic nuclei,
including the so-called Ion Guide Isotope Separator On Line (IGISOL) technique pioneered at
Jyväskylä, colinear laser spectroscopy and ion trapping methods, have been used to measure, for the
first time, the radii of radioactive isotopes of a highly refractory element, hafnium. The combination
of a gas-filled recoil separator and of an array of 25 gamma-ray detectors has been used to study the
behaviour of very heavy nuclei, for example the heavy Z = 102 isotopes 252,254No, when they rotate at
very large angular velocities, i.e. at high spins, as outlined in Chapter 1, and to investigate their
shapes illustrated in Figure 3.
The same topics, i.e. the behaviour of nuclei at high spins, are one of the central research themes of
the “Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro (LNL)”, Padova, Italy, thanks to the development of very large
arrays of gamma-ray detectors. One of them, i.e. the so-called EUROBALL array, has been developed
by a consortium of European laboratories, and started working at the LNL. Recent achievements
obtained along this line are the nuclear spectroscopy of the very proton-rich nuclei 46V, 50Fe, 58Cu, 72Kr
and 103Sn. Other activities at the LNL include the investigation of gravitational waves and some
applications of Nuclear Physics to Radiobiology and to material research.
The EUROBALL array has meanwhile been moved to the “Institut de Recherches Subatomiques (IreS)”,
Strasbourg, France, where new discoveries in high-spin physics are to be expected. The EUROBALL
array, when working at Legnaro, is shown in Figure 9.
The ISOLDE facility at CERN, Genève, Switzerland, is a highly multidisciplinary installation, where
experiments pertaining to nuclear physics, nuclear astrophysics, condensed matter physics, biology
and medicine are carried out. Recent improvements of the instrumentation, in particular of the ion
source and of innovative trapping and cooling techniques, have been used to study, in detail,
radioactive isotopes of very short half-lives, both on the proton-rich side of the nuclear chart (e.g. 33Ar,
half-life 0.17 sec) and on the neutron-rich side (e.g. 14Be, a halo nucleus with a 4 msec half-life).
Condensed matter experiments have studied the implantation of very low concentrations of impurities
in various materials, through electron-channelling techniques. Figure 10 shows, as an example, a
three-dimensional plot of the number of electrons from the beta decay of a radioactive Cu isotope
produced at ISOLDE and implanted in a silicon wafer, as a function of angles with respect to a crystal
axis. Such data allow the direct derivation of the position of the copper atoms in silicon, an
information that has important technological and economical consequences.
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The “Kernfysisch Versneller Instituut (KVI)”, Groningen, The Netherlands, has recently used its AGOR
superconducting cyclotron, together with a large instrument called Big Bite Spectrometer, to study
nuclear reactions in which an incident deuteron, which is a bound system of one proton and one
neutron, interacts with various targets, and becomes a particle denoted 2He, which is an unbound
system of two protons. Such reactions allow to study peculiar excited states of the final nuclei, which
play an important role in Nuclear Astrophysics, particularly in supernova explosions. The
corresponding research programme, which is called EUROSUPERNOVA, implies several European
laboratories, in The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.
At the “The Svedberg Laboratory (TSL)”, Uppsala, Sweden, the main activities with the CELSIUS
storage ring deal with precision studies of light-meson production and decay. Besides these
fundamental investigations, the mono-energetic neutron beam at one of the cyclotron beam lines is
used for a wide range of applications. One of these deals with the radiation environment at
commercial aircraft altitudes. Fast neutrons produced by the cosmic radiation are a serious concern,
both for radiation protection (for the airplane crews) and for radiation damage (to electronic and
computer hardwares) issues. The TSL neutron beam is used to help assessing the importance of these
radiation effects. The project has a European dimension, since it includes participants from Germany,
Ireland, Italy, Russia, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
Figure 10. Results obtained at
ISOLDE/CERN, Genève,
Switzerland, when investigating
the implantation of copper atoms
in silicon through electronchannelling techniques.
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The “Forschungszentrum Jülich” (FZJ), Jülich, Germany, operates the cooler synchrotron COSY. It
delivers high quality proton beams that can be polarized, i.e. the direction of their internal angular
momentum, or “spin”, can be fixed. These are sent on various targets, protons or deuterons inside or
outside COSY, and have recently yielded unexpected results on the mesons and the baryons, i.e. on
particles which are made of quarks as outlined in Chapter 1.
The European Community support for the Research Infrastructures in Nuclear Physics through
Transnational Access contracts has thus led to outstanding scientific results by bringing together the
experience and skills of several European teams around a common research theme; it also allowed
widening the participation of European researchers to such experiments, in particular young
scientists, postdocs and even PhD students.
Indeed, many PhD theses have been based on these common experiments. This has introduced these
young scientists to a culture of European collaboration, has broadened their experience to the
working methods of the laboratories in different European countries and has brought them in contact
with more experienced scientists from various horizons, i.e. a very important educational aspect. This
has also allowed access to the Research Infrastructures for many European researchers originating
from all European countries. These researchers have brought with them, not only their scientific
experience, but also new equipments, developed in their home laboratories, thereby increasing the
efficiency of the use of these equipments.
The RTD contracts, on the other hand, have led to the development of new techniques common to
several Research Infrastructures, and to their spreading within these Research Infrastructures. This
fact, not only prevented undue duplication of the efforts in different Research Infrastructures on the
same theme, but also contributed to the development of common experimental techniques and
methods, a very favourable factor for the mobility of the researchers within Europe and for European
integration. Furthermore, these RTD contracts allowed the network of collaborating Research
Infrastructures to be widened to laboratories and research groups outside the Research Infrastructures
funded by the European Community through Transnational Access contracts.
The Concerted Action has led to a culture of cooperation between the European Research
Infrastructures in Nuclear Physics at the top level, and has allowed a feedback from their users. It has
furthermore triggered a common elaboration of the development plans of the different Research
Infrastructures in the fields of Radioactive Nuclear Beams and of Instrumentation around them. The
experimental programmes of the European Research Infrastructures in Nuclear Physics are thereby
fine-tuned to each other as far as this seems possible. All this was accomplished under the auspices
and with the participation of NuPECC, which assured a global view on the needs for development of
Nuclear Physics within Europe.
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•Mapping studies by NuPECC: report on Impact and Applications of Nuclear Science in Europe; study groups on
Radioactive Nuclear Beams, Computational Nuclear Physics, ELFE@CERN
•Instrumentation near Radioactive Nuclear Beam facilities
•Detectors for photons and electron-positron pairs, to be used at the Light Ion Facility Europe (LIFE) network
•Production and investigation of heavy and superheavy elements
•Interdisciplinary uses of Nuclear Physics Research Infrastructures
•Public Awareness of Nuclear Science
Table 5: Projected activities within the Thematic Network FINUPHY.
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4. CONCLUSIONS AND PERSPECTIVES
The last 10 years, i.e. essentially during the third and fourth Framework Programmes, have seen a
strong increase in the support of Research Infrastructures in Nuclear Physics by the European
Community, as outlined in Table 1 and Chapter 2. This has yielded many benefits for the European
Nuclear Physics community as detailed in Chapter 3, in terms of important discoveries and of a
strengthening of the cultural cooperation between the relevant Research Infrastructures.
The perspectives for the next few years, within the programme Improving Human Potential of the fifth
Framework Programme, are very promising. There is now a Network of twelve complementary
Research Infrastructures covering the most important aspects of Nuclear Physics and Nuclear
Astrophysics which are supported by a Transnational Access contract, as shown in the map on
page 24 and listed in Table 2. Extremely important RTD projects are being conducted in common by
several Research Infrastructures and other European laboratories, which mostly aim at preparing the
European facilities to the development program in the next decade, in particular for the production
of Radioactive Nuclear Beams and their uses. These projects will help to ensure that Europe maintains
its present world-wide leadership in this important field of Science.
The twelve Research Infrastructures, together with NuPECC and representatives of their users, will
work together within the Thematic Network FINUPHY as outlined in Chapter 2. The main projects
within the latter are listed in Table 5. A special emphasis will be placed to the Applications of Nuclear
Physics (Chapter 1), not only through the elaboration of an Impact and Application report, but also
by a common investigation, within FINUPHY, of the Interdisciplinary Uses of Nuclear Physics Research
Infrastructures. The present situation in this respect will be reviewed and assessed, and ways to
improve and amplify the use of the Research Infrastructures by scientific communities other than the
one of Nuclear Physics will be investigated. It is also expected that European researchers originating
from scientific disciplines other than Nuclear Physics will increasingly benefit from the support of the
European Community through the Transnational Access contracts.
Another activity, which will be pursued by NuPECC within FINUPHY, will be to raise the Public
Awareness of Nuclear Science, by outlining, in a non-technical language, the main highlights recently
achieved and the main challenges being faced by Nuclear Physics today. This will be part of a more
general activity of NuPECC, which will tend to outline, for a general public audience, the main
contributions of Nuclear Physics to Society, both as a Science and through its impact on neighbouring
disciplines and its many applications to the benefit of mankind.
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Page 24
LOCATION AND DATA OF RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURES
IN NUCLEAR PHYSICS
4
9
8
10
1
2
3
7
6
12 5
11
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The twelve Research Infrastructures in Nuclear Physics, supported by the European Community under Transnational Access
Contracts.
1. Centre de Recherches du Cyclotron
CRC
Louvain-la-Neuve
Belgium
5. Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro
LNL
Padova
Italy
9. The Svedberg Laboratory
TSL
Uppsala
Sweden
2. Grand Accélérateur National d'Ions
Lourds
GANIL
Caen
France
6. ISOLDE collaboration, CERN
ISOLDE
Genève
Switzerland
10. Forschungszentrum Jülich
FZJ
Jülich
Germany
3. Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung
GSI
Darmstadt
Germany
7. Institut de Recherches Subatomiques
IReS
Strasbourg
France
11. Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati
LNF
Frascati
Italy
4. Accelerator Laboratory
JYFL
Jyväskylä
Finland
8. Kernfysisch Versneller Instituut
KVI
Groningen
The Netherlands
12. European Center for Theoretical Studies
in Nuclear Physics and Related Areas
ECT*
Trento
Italy
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ACCESS TO RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURES
In 1989, under the Second “Framework Programme for Community R&D”, the European Commission
introduced a scheme to help Europe’s top researchers, as well as young scientists, to obtain time at
whichever facility was best equipped for their research, irrespective of where it was located in the
European Union, or who owned and operated it. To this end, since the late 1980s, successive
Framework Programmes have contained an activity designed to provide such access and the funds to
enable researchers to take advantage of it. The European Union’s Programme “Improving Human
Research Potential and the Socio-Economic Knowledge Base” (part of the Fifth Framework Programme)
is the premier provider of transnational Access to Research Infrastructures (ARI). The funding also
supports transnational RTD projects, Round-Tables and Infrastructure Cooperation Networks.
Access to Research Infrastructures funding aims to ensure that European researchers gain access to
facilities on the basis of their scientific merit and are not limited by the geographic location or national
ownership of a particular establishment. Over the years, ARI support has opened up facilities all over
Europe from the Arctic Circle to French Guyana and the Canary Islands or the Negev Desert. For about
70% of all the researchers already supported by this activity it was their first opportunity to use the
facility and more than 80% would otherwise not have been able to obtain access.
The importance and success of this activity (under previous programmes and the present one) is
clearly demonstrated by the following figures:
• Under the Large Installations Plan (1989-1992) about 1,600 researchers were provided access to
17 facilities.
• Under the Human Capital and Mobility Programme (1990-1994) more than 4,000 researchers
were provided access to 72 facilities.
• Under the Training and Mobility of Researchers (TMR) Programme, on average more than 2,000
researchers per year have been provided access to 116 of Europe’s top facilities.
• So far, under the Improving Human Potential Programme, access contracts have been signed with
111 large research infrastructures, so access will continue to be provided to about 2,000
researchers per annum.
Access to the facilities is open to researchers, in the public and private sector, who are resident in an
EU country or of one of the Programme’s Associated States. The access must involve transnational
travel to a facility to which the researchers (or users) do not already have right of access. For details
on how and when to apply, applicants should contact the respective facility directly (not the European
Commission!). In all cases a peer review committee will screen applications to ensure that access is
awarded to the most worthy research projects with special emphasis being placed on first time users
(who are mostly Ph.D. students and young post-docs).
A brief description of each of the current installations available and on the ARI Action can be found
on our Web site. Information brochures can be requested from the EC:
E-mail: Campbell.Warden@cec.eu.int
Fax: +32 2 299 2102
For further information see “Access to Research Infrastructures” at:
http://www.cordis.lu/improving/src/hp_ari.htm
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European Commission
Research Infrastructures
Frontiers in Nuclear Physics
by Prof. Jean Vervier
Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities
2000 — 26 pp. — 21 x 29.7 cm
ISBN 92-894-0026-9
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15
Nuclear Physics, the science of the atomic nucleus, has a deep influence on our society. It
provides fundamental insight about the matter that makes up our universe and its origin. This
report gives an overview of current challenges, future trends and the needs and requirements
of the European scientifiic community in this ever-evolving area.
OFFICE FOR OFFICIAL PUBLICATIONS
OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
L-2985 Luxembourg
ISBN 92-894-0026-9
,!7IJ2I9-eaacgi!
CG-25-99-568-EN-C
One in the series of brochures to highlight the contribution made by the Community research
infrastructure programmes.This report focuses on the work carried out by the Concerted
Action and Thematic Network and of the Nuclear Physics European Collaboration Committee
in the field of Nuclear Physics. It aims to provide useful information both to the researchers
active in this field and to those responsible for developing new research infrastructure in this
area.