Minutes of the ISOLDE Physics Group Meeting, March 29^th 2017

There were no comments to the minutes of the previous meeting.

Technical news

• Separators/REX

• The cold check-out of ISOLDE has found no major issues.
• The RFQ was tested in transmission mode at 60 kV. It will also be tested in bunching mode.
• During the check of the beam diagnostics, Miguel found some incorrectly connected Faraday cups.
• The GLM/GHM deflectors were checked and are working.
• The EBIS was tested with beam and it is working fine, including the cathode.
• The mechanical problem of the HRS slits was fixed.
• The remote-controlled gas valve of ISCOOL is again not working.
• ISOLDE is almost ready for the SEM grid tests of the proton-beam position. An inspection of the DSO will take place prior to that.
• The upgrade of the HV modulation system, allowing faster recovery of the front-end voltage, will be addressed again. It is not clear at this time what the outcome of the tests performed last year is.
• RILIS
• RILIS is checking the HRS laser-beam path. There are also ongoing tests of silicon and selenium ionization.
• Targets
• A number of targets will be returned from the Intersecting Storage Ring to the class A area, as back-up for this year’s running period (transport scheduled for the week before Easter).
• The target production has started. Sebastian Rothe has created a SharePoint workspace for targets, which will allow better recording and accessing the information of every target unit.  He will participate in the physics group meeting to introduce the new workspace once it is complete.
• The production of nanostructured targets is on hold until a conformal laboratory can be set up for their production. Until then, EPFL has agreed to produce the carbon-nanotubes.

Safety

• Following the OFSP inspection in January, a letter was received by ISOLDE, listing a number of issues to be addressed. An answer is being prepared and a first meeting between responsibles will take place next week.
• No user is yet registered for the ISOLDE safety courses of the week before Easter. The courses will be cancelled if no participants are announced.
• Following the safety visit of b. 275, there were no comments from the safety officer. We are awaiting the written conclusions.
• The cryogenic safety team at CERN is building an inventory of the various existing cryogenic systems. Some of the people at ISOLDE might be contacted for information.

Schedule

• A call for INTC proposals will be sent soon, including possible letters of intent for experiments taking place at the beginning of LS2.
• The ENSAR2 funding applications for the experiments scheduled until the end of June should be sent to Jenny by their contact persons or spokespersons until next Monday latest.
• A block booking of CERN hostel rooms for ISOLDE beam-time participants will be available also this year. The booking requests for every experiment should be centralized by one experiment responsible and forwarded to the CERN hostel at least one month in advance of the arrival date.

Visits

• The deputy director of the IAEA is visiting ISOLDE tomorrow. One should make sure that things are in good order around the different setups.
• A few visits are coming up in the following days: a group of UK high-school students and a CERN artist on Friday, as well as a group of Manchester students next Monday.

AOB

• The summer-student project supervisors who already received a student in the first selection round should inform Liam of the student’s name.
• A mobile crane will be installed on the wall of the hall extension, allowing to lift the top of the Scattering Chamber. The position of the scattering chamber at the end of the third high-energy beam line cannot be accessed with the overhead crane of ISOLDE.

Seminar

• The meeting was followed by the seminar of Joao Pedro Esteves De Araujo from University of Porto on "Multifunctional materials and nanostructures: opportunities for materials and solid state physics studies at ISOLDE ".

The next PG meeting will take place on Wednesday, April 5^th, at 14:00. It will be followed by a seminar by Pawel Moskal from the Jagiellonian University on "Tests of discrete symmetries using Jagiellonian Positron Emission Tomography".

Minutes taken by VM