I Summer School on Acceleration and Applications of Heavy Ions

1 - 7 July 2012
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 Heavy Ion Laboratory, University in Warsaw, organises a one week summer school that gives participating 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, two days of accelarator beamtime are 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). After a basic analysis of the collected data, students prepare final presentations in a form of 20 minutes talks on their measurements and results.

The experimental part of the school (6-8 hours of laboratory work per day) 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 and presentation of various experimental techniques of nuclear physics.

Experimental tasks include:

• Target thickness and cross-section measurement in Rutherford scattering
• Experimental study of charged particle spectra in nuclear reactions
• Tests of novel detectors for particle spectroscopy
• Preparation of targets for nuclear physics and investigation of their properties
• Beam focusing in heavy ion acceleration
• Low-background measurements of biological samples and long-lived reaction products
• Identification of excited bands in gamma-gamma coincidences

The Summer School is intended for physics students interested in nuclear physics, who have finished their first cycle of studies and hold a Bachelor degree or equivalent, but younger students (third year) are also encouraged to apply.

Accomodation is provided in the laboratory guesthouse free of charge, other costs (travel/local costs) have to be covered by participants.

The first edition, which took place in July 2012, was attended by 11 students from Armenia, Belgium, Croatia, Italy, Poland, Russia and Spain. We plan to organise the next edition in the second week of July 2013.

NEW!School programme including presentations

NEW!Student teams and presentations

School poster