Rare-isotope storage rings offer unique capabilities to study nuclear properties through their relatively long storage times, as has been demonstrated by the work that has been performed over the last several decades at ring facilities around the world. Despite these opportunities, to date little investment has been made in North America in rare-isotope storage ring capabilities.
Neutron-induced reactions play a key role in understanding such diverse scientific fields as nuclear astrophysics, stockpile stewardship, reactor performance, and nuclear forensics. For many of these endeavors, reactions on short-lived nuclei offer key insights into the physical environment. Neutron reactions on short-lived nuclei have presented particular challenges, however, as both beam and target are unstable. Bringing storage rings to bear on the challenges of neutron-induced reactions offers the opportunity to directly measure neutron-induced cross sections.
In order to develop the technical capabilities to make this opportunity a reality, we invite you to participate in a virtual workshop focused on the scientific opportunities as well as the enabling technologies for such a new research avenue.
Presently, in North America three independent projects are discussed that aim to measure direct neutron capture cross sections of short-lived nuclei. The LANL project follows the proposal of combining a spallation neutron target fed by the 800 MeV proton beam from the LANSCE facility with a storage ring. The TRIUMF Storage Ring project will use radioactive beams from the existing ISAC facility and proposes to install a high-intensity neutron generator in a low-energy storage ring. The FRIB proposal would use the ReA3/6 beams and potential higher energy upgrades. All three projects are largely complementary and are running on different time scales and projected costs.
This workshop will bring together interested scientists and inform the community about these exciting future plans. It will initiate various collaborative working groups to work on common designs and detector concepts. Plenty of time will be available for discussions and break-out sessions or spontaneous discussions. Embracing the virtual nature of the workshop, the meeting will be broken into three half-day sessions. No parallel sessions are planned. Zoom will be used for the primary presentation of technical content, while Gather.Town allows us to invite you for a virtual coffee and exciting discussions.
This workshop is supported by IReNA, the International Research Network for Nuclear Astrophysics . IReNA is a US National Science Foundation AccelNet Network of Networks. It connects six interdisciplinary research networks across 17 countries to foster collaboration, complement and enhance research capabilities in the US and abroad, and thus greatly accelerate progress in science. It covers the Focus Areas FA1 (Nuclear Reaction Rates), FA4 (r-process experiments), and FA6 (Nuclear Data).
