Low-energy radioactive beam experiments using the UM-UND solenoid RNB apparatus at the UND tandem: Past, present and future

Abstract

Approximately ten years ago (1987) one of the first operational low-energy radioactive nuclear beam (RNB) facilities was put into place at the University of Notre Dame (UND) as a joint project between the University of Michigan (UM) and UND. The key elements to the success of the project were the installation of a large-bore 3.5 Tesla superconducting solenoid (supplied by UM) to collect and focus secondary radioactive beams, combined with an upgrade of the UND FN Tandem, the latter including the addition of a high-intensity sputter ion source. The resulting secondary beams (8Li, 6He, 7Be, 8B, 18Fm, …) are generally produced by selective, high-cross-section direct reactions. These beams are sufficiently intense (viz. 104/s to 108/s) to permit measurement of many low-energy reaction cross sections of interest to nuclear astrophysics, nuclear reaction theory, and high-isospin nuclear physics. A review of past and recent RNB data obtained with this apparatus will be presented together with plans for a major u...