ATOMIC PHYSICS RESEARCHES AT COOLER STORAGE RING IN LANZHOU

The commissioning of the cooler storage rings (CSR) was successful, and the facility provides new possibilities for atomic physics with highly charged ions. Bare carbon, argon ions, were successfully stored in the main ring CSRm, cooled by cold electron beam, and accelerated up to 1 GeV/u. Heavier ions as Xe44+ and Kr28+ were also successfully stored in the CSRs. Both of the rings are equipped with new generation of electron coolers which can provide different electron beam density distributions. Electron-ion interactions, high precision X-ray spectroscopy, complete kinematical measurements for relativistic ion-atom collisions will be performed at CSRs. Laser cooling of heavy ions are planned as well. The physics programs and the present status will be summarized.

Measurement of the inelastic branch of the stellar O-14(alpha,p)F-17 reaction occurring in the explosive burning in Novae and X-ray busters

The inelastic component of the key astrophysical resonance (1(-), E-x=6.15 MeV) in the O-14(alpha,p)F-17 reaction has been studied by using the resonant scattering of F-17+p. The experiment was done at REX-ISOLDE CERN with the Miniball setup. The thick target method in inverse kinematics was utilized in the present experiment where a 44.2 MeV F-17 beam bombarded a similar to 40 mu m thick (CH2)(n) target. The inelastic scattering protons in coincidence with the de-excited 495 keV gamma rays have been clearly seen and they are from the inelastic branch to the first excited state in F-17 following decay of the 1(-) resonance in Ne-18. Some preliminary results are reported.

Nuclear physics program at HIRFL

With the commissioning of HIRFL-CSR, HIRFL can provide heavy ion beams with energy covering the range of several MeV/u to 1 GeV/u. In this talk, the experiments on nuclear physics at different energies to be carried out with different experimental setups at HIRFL will be introduced.

TRITON-(HE)-H-3 RELATIVE AND DIFFERENTIAL FLOWS AND THE HIGH DENSITY BEHAVIOR OF NUCLEAR SYMMETRY ENERGY

Using a transport model coupled with a phase-space coalescence after-burner we study the triton-He-3 relative and differential transverse flows in semi-central Sn-132 + Sn-124 reactions at a beam energy of 400 MeV/nucleon. We find that the triton-He-3 pairs carry interesting information about the density dependence of the nuclear symmetry energy. The t-He-3 relative flow can be used as a particularly powerful probe of the high-density behavior of the nuclear symmetry energy.

Quasi-isochoric ion beam heating using dynamic confinement in spherical geometry for X-ray scattering experiments in WDM regime

Extreme states of matter such as Warm Dense Matter “WDM” and Dense Strongly Coupled Plasmas “DSCP” play a key role in many high energy density experiments, however creating WDM and DSCP in a manner that can be quantified is not readily feasible. In this paper, isochoric heating of matter by intense heavy ion beams in spherical symmetry is investigated for WDM and DSCP research: The heating times are long (100 ns), the samples are macroscopically large (mm-size) and the symmetry is advantageous for diagnostic purposes. A dynamic confinement scheme in spherical symmetry is proposed which allows even ion beam heating times that are long on the hydrodynamic time scale of the target response. A particular selection of low Z-target tamper and x-ray probe radiation parameters allows to identify the x-ray scattering from the target material and use it for independent charge state measurements Z* of the material under study.

Physics of electron beam ion traps and sources

This paper presents the basic physics underlying the operation of electron beam ion traps and sources, with the machine physics underlying their operation being described in some detail. Predictions arising from this description are compared with some diagnostic measurements.

Numerical simulation of the charge balance and temperature evolution in an electron beam ion trap

A computer code has been developed to simulate and study the evolution of ion charge states inside the trap region of an electron beam ion trap. In addition to atomic physics phenomena previously included in similar codes such as electron impact ionization, radiative recombination, and charge exchange, several aspects of the relevant physics such as dielectronic recombination, ionization heating, and ion cloud expansion have been included for the first time in the model. The code was developed using object oriented concepts with database support, making it readable, accurate, and well organized. The simulation results show a good agreement with various experiments, and give useful information for selection of operating conditions and experiment design.

Electron beam-plasma interaction and ion-acoustic solitary waves in plasmas with a superthermal electron component

The study of non-Maxwellian plasmas is crucial to the understanding of space and astrophysical plasma dynamics. In this paper, we investigate the existence of arbitrary amplitude ion-acoustic solitary waves in an unmagnetized plasma consisting of ions and excess superthermal electrons (modelled by a kappa-type distribution), which is penetrated by an electron beam. A kappa (kappa-) type distribution is assumed for the background electrons. A (Sagdeev-type) pseudopotential formalism is employed to derive an energy-balance like equation. The range of allowed values of the soliton speed (Mach number), wherein solitary waves may exist, is determined. The Mach number range (allowed soliton speed values) becomes narrower under the combined effect of the electron beam and of the superthermal electrons, and may even be reduced to nil (predicting no solitary wave existence) for high enough beam density and low enough kappa (significant superthermality). For fixed values of all other parameters (Mach number, electron beam-to-ion density ratio and electron beam velocity), both soliton amplitude and (electric potential perturbation) profile steepness increase as kappa decreases. The combined occurrence of small-amplitude negative potential structures and larger amplitude positive ones is pointed out, while the dependence of either type on the plasma parameters is investigated.

On the investigation of fast electron beam filamentation in laser-irradiated solid targets using multi-MeV proton emission

The transverse filamentation of beams of fast electrons transported in solid targets irradiated by ultraintense (5 x 10(20) W cm(-2)), picosecond laser pulses is investigated experimentally. Filamentation is diagnosed by measuring the uniformity of a beam of multi-MeV protons accelerated by the sheath field formed by the arrival of the fast electrons at the rear of the target, and is investigated for metallic and insulator targets ranging in thickness from 50 to 1200 mu m. By developing an analytical model, the effects of lateral expansion of electron beam filaments in the sheath during the proton acceleration process is shown to account for measured increases in proton beam nonuniformity with target thickness for the insulating targets.