International Workshop on Acceleration and Applications of Heavy Ions

27 February - 12 March 2011
Heavy Ion Laboratory, Warsaw, Poland

Nuclear physics students, especially in countries where no accelerator facilities are present, have often quite limited possibilities of getting acquainted with modern scientific apparatus. Existing faculty physics laboratories offer usually only basic equipment and propose standard experimental tasks which do not stimulate independent thinking and creativity. As a response to these needs, the International Workshop on Acceleration and Applications of Heavy Ions is organised at the Heavy Ion Laboratory of the University in Warsaw, giving students a unique opportunity to gain experience in methods of data acquisition and analysis, in operating the cyclotron including beam diagnostics measurements and in charged particle and gamma-ray detection techniques.

Participants work in small international groups to prepare and perform nuclear physics measurements using dedicated apparatus available in the Heavy Ion Laboratory. For this purpose, a week of beamtime will be allocated. These tasks provide them with a hands-on experience with modern scientific equipment (detectors and related electronics, vacuum systems) and offer a possibility to get acquainted with good practice rules of laboratory work (e.g. sources and target handling). During the second week of the workshop, participants analyse the collected data, make additional off-beam measurements (if needed) and prepare final presentations in a form of 20 minutes talks on their measurements and results.

The experimental part of the workshop is accompanied by a series of lectures on subjects related to heavy ion physics. The lectures take place every day in the morning and offer introductions to subjects such as target preparation, ion optics, presentation of various experimental techniques as well as applications of nuclear methods in other fields, such as medicine and nuclear energy.

The Workshop is intended for physics students interested in nuclear physics, who have finished their first cycle of studies and hold a Bachelors degree or equivalent, but young PhD students can also apply. Students from three partner institutions are invited to apply: University of Warsaw, Poland; University of Sofia, Bulgaria, University of Huelva, Spain. Travel, accomodation and part of local costs of the participants are covered thanks to financial support of the LLP Erasmus Programme.

Workshop programme

Student teams

Workshop poster

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This page reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.