DRAGON meeting minutes April 8,2003 

Present: DFOT, DH, SE, CR, DG, LB, CN, JDA, AO, JR, Weiping Liu, ML(Thoth).

Minutes of previous meeting accepted.


Hardware and software updates:

DH: FCM2 proved to be within 3-4mm of expected position, we will rely on 
it since the elastics aren't very "healthy". They respond to the beam but 
their shape is not well understood, see figure.

DH/DFOT: The problem with the automatic control of the backing pump was 
fixed, it will be tested tomorrow.

AO: There have been a couple of changes to the scaling program due to some 
bugs.Saving a run is now more explicit.
The change over from beam to recoils is also different, there is a new 
"button" beam -->--> recoils which will not change the magnets.
The bug concerning strange ED values popping up occasionally is now fixed.

DH: ED1 loses its conditioning rapidly, it had been conditioned above 130KV 
and we were running around 96KV it now conditions around 120KV. Thus in 
between runs, and whenever possible, the ED's should be conditioned.

DH: Drawings for the new solid target to be used in the 12C + 12C reaction 
have been made and sent to the machine shop.

AO: There are some problems with the current ODB
It is writing very large history files. 
There is an earlier version of epics on it.
There is a power supply not being used.
There is a problem with a driver.
These items along with the difficulty of making changes to the language 
written by Peter Green are conspiring to give us problems.


Current Run Status:

LB: We are running with a typical beam on target of 160enA (3+). We are 
chugging along and have ran at beam energies of 1.07, 1.08 1.09 1.10 and 
are currently at 1.11MeV/u. The data so far looks OK except for a couple of 
puzzles. There are two peaks in the elastics monitor both of which are beam 
related. Joel has tested various collimators but the two peaks prevail in 
all cases. There also exists a puzzle in the singles and coincidence spectra. 
There is a small lower energy "blimp" which occurs in both spectra, the 
cause of this will be tracked down and brought to justice.
The beam suppression looks quite good, as might be expected with a helium 
target. However the still exists some low energy "grass" which also needs to 
be explained.  

LB: We eventually want to reach the 4+ and 2+ resonances. We will start 
moving in bigger steps soon once we get off resonance and the cross section 
levels out.

LB: The goal for each run is of the order 600 counts in the coincidence gamma 
spectrum. This number is needed in order to reproduce the angular distribution 
with a reasonable error.


Other business arising:

DH: Hans-Otto Meyer (Indiana University) will be joining us for two weeks 
starting next Monday.

JDA: 21Na(p,g)22Mg status:
2 papers have to be written, SE has drafted a commissioning paper and SB wants 
to write the "big paper".
Elizabeth (a.k.a. CN) and JDA have started to analyze the data, and have 
preliminary numbers for wg.
A section on the gamma array is needed, DG has finished classes and cant wait 
to get started on this.

SE: Gave a practice talk of her ISAC student seminar.