Minutes of the ISOLDE Physics Group Meeting, February 14^th 2018

There were no comments to the minutes of the last ISOLDE PGM.

Technical news

• HRS/GPS/REX/HIE-ISOLDE
• The yearly exchange of the extraction electrodes was performed for both HRS and GPS.
• A calibration error was found on the old GPS extraction electrode. Some screws were loose and it was difficult to move the electrode, before replacement. 
• This week are scheduled robot trajectory tests for the LIEBE target. The old tests with a dummy target have to be redone with the current target because of their difference in dimensions.
• The LIST target, to be scheduled this year, will also be tested together with the ISOLDE robots, because there are some concerns with the additional space required by the RF housing.
• The microswitches for the HRS front-end HV are being changed this week.
• Thursday the cleaning of the front-end area will be performed. The technical group has sufficient volunteers for the operation.
• The laser widows will be exchanged both on HRS and GPS.

Physics and schedule

• There was a busy INTC session last week, with 84/184 shifts approved for ISOLDE. Beam requests for the newly approved shifts should be sent back by Friday.
• There are 1106 open shifts, of which only about 400 can be scheduled.

Safety

• The installation of the LIEBE-target cabling awaits the approval of RP. This is a crucial intervention, which cannot be performed later and which decides if the LIEBE target can be tested this year or not.
• There was a safety inspection of the ISOLDE laser labs. An electrical inspection of ISOLTRAP will take place beginning of March.

Visits

• All upcoming visits are covered.
• Next week (20 February) a VIP visit from Belgium will take place and KU Leuven staff are kindly requested to participate.
• The visitor-helmet situation is deteriorating, most of them being dirty and worn out. It is necessary to purchase new helmets and perhaps the Visits Service or Safety can pay for them (in case they have a special budget).
• All visits organisers are kindly requested to inform Hanne directly of their planned visits, in order to avoid double-booking, misunderstandings etc.

AOB

• There will be re-organization of office space. The in-house group will be contacted in March concerning the subject.
• The group meeting will be followed by a discussion of the submitted ISOLDE of summer-student projects. 

Seminar

• The meeting was followed by the seminar of James Cubiss from University of York, with the title “Shape studies in the lead region: in-source laser spectroscopy of astatine nuclei and decay studies in ¹⁷⁸Au”.

The next PG meeting will take place on Wednesday, February 21^st, at 14:00 in the ISOLDE visitors’ room (26-1-022). It will not be followed by a seminar.

Minutes taken by VM