W.J. Huang

An improvement of isochronous mass spectrometry: Velocity measurements using two time-of-flight detectors

Abstract Isochronous mass spectrometry (IMS) in storage rings is a powerful tool for mass measurements of exotic nuclei with very short half-lives down to several tens of microseconds, using a multicomponent secondary beam separated in-flight without cooling. However, the inevitable momentum spread of secondary ions limits the precision of nuclear masses determined by using IMS. Therefore, the momentum measurement in addition to the revolution period of stored ions is crucial to reduce the influence of the momentum spread on the standard deviation of the revolution period, which would lead to a much improved mass resolving power of IMS. One of the proposals to upgrade IMS is that the velocity of secondary ions could be directly measured by using two time-of-flight (double TOF) detectors installed in a straight section of a storage ring. In this paper, we outline the principle of IMS with double TOF detectors and the method to correct the momentum spread of stored ions.

First isochronous mass measurements with two time-of-flight detectors at CSRe

Isochronous mass spectrometry (IMS) established in heavy-ion storage rings has proven to be a powerful tool for mass measurements of short-lived nuclides. In IMS, the revolution times of stored ions should be independent of their velocity spread. However, this isochronous condition is fulfilled only in the first order and in a small range of revolution times. To correct for non-isochronicity, an additional measure of the velocity or magnetic rigidity of each stored ion is required. For this purpose two new time-of-flight (TOF) detectors were installed in one of the straight sections of the experimental cooler storage ring in Lanzhou. It is expected that the resolving power of the IMS will significantly be improved with such a double-TOF arrangement. The double-TOF system was tested in a recent experiment with the Kr-78 fragments. Some of the experimental results are presented in this contribution.

Simulations of the isochronous mass spectrometry at the HIRFL-CSR

A Monte-Carlo simulation code, named as SimCSR, has been developed for the isochronous mass spectrometry experiments in the experimental storage ring (CSRe). The revolution times of the fragments ions stored in the CSRe, which were produced in the fragmentation of Ni-58 primary beam are reproduced very well by the SimCSR, although only linear components are considered. The standard deviation of the revolution time is found to be strongly affected by the phase slip factor, the width of the relative momentum difference and the instability of magnetic field. Based on the simulations, we outline and discuss the methods to reduce the standard deviation of the revolution time.

A method to measure the transition energy γ t of the isochronously tuned storage ring

Abstract The Isochronous Mass Spectrometry (IMS) is a powerful technique developed in heavy-ion storage rings for measuring masses of very short-lived exotic nuclei. The IMS is based on the isochronous setting of the ring. One of the main parameters of this setting is the transition energy γ t . It has been a challenge to determine the γ t and especially to monitor the variation of γ t during experiments. In this paper we introduce a method to measure the γ t online during IMS experiments by using the acquired experimental data. Furthermore, since the storage ring has (in our context) a relatively large momentum acceptance, the variation of the γ t across the ring acceptance is a source of systematic uncertainty of measured masses. With the installation of two time-of-flight (TOF) detectors, the velocity of each stored ion and its revolution time are simultaneously available for the analysis. These quantities enabled us to determine the γ t as a function of orbital length in the ring. The presented method is especially important for future IMS experiments planned at the new-generation storage ring facilities FAIR in Germany and HIAF in China.

Application of Isochronous Mass Spectrometry for the study of angular momentum population in projectile fragmentation reactions

Isochronous mass spectrometry was applied to measure isomeric yield ratios of fragmentation reaction prod- ucts. This approach is complementary to conventional g -ray spectroscopy in particular for measuring yield ratios for long-lived isomeric states. Isomeric yield ratios for the high-spin I = 19=2¯h states in the mirror nuclei 53Fe and 53Co are measured to study angular momentum population following the projectile fragmentation of 78Kr at energies of 480 A MeV on a beryllium target. The 19/2 state isomeric ratios of 53Fe produced from different projectiles in literature have also been extracted as a function of mass number difference between projectile and fragment (mass loss). The results are compared to ABRABLA07 model calculations. The isomeric ratios of 53Fe produced using different projectiles suggest that the theory underestimates not only the previously reported dependence on the spin but also the dependence on the mass loss.