Minutes for DRAGON meeting, April 19th 2005. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Present: Chris Ouellet, Tom Kirchner, Christof Vockenhuber, Lothar Buchmann, Jac Caggiano, Marc Huyse, Peter Machule, Mike Trinczek, Dave Ottowell, John D'Auria, Dave Hutcheon, Art Olin, Jonty Pearson (recorder). 1. Hardware Status ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ DO: o Charge-state-booster: Pump-down sequence instructions are now written up. Possible refinements are needed. Circuit breaker with comb is probably not going to written up. o Gas-target alignment: Comparisons have been made with alignment measurements from June 2002. See attachment ottewell.pdf. There is 1.5 mm skew over 25 cm target length. Alignment is not as good as it should be. Could the box have got twisted? Is there a difference under vacuum? Problem is we have no adjustments built in to change alignment. There are also two possible ways to centre the quads again a) using floating balls and b) using a wire with AC current and resonant frequencies. Quad alignment is important and could affect experiments such as 12c(a,g)16O because of the large cone angle. DO does not really like centring quads with balls, as never quite seems to work as it should. o Elevation measurement: Elevation has improved - so leave it all alone. Observational error, better than a 1 mm. Measurement should be repeated by independent party (i.e. no DRAGON persons). DH: o Water leak status: DH talked to Doug Preddy, will replace goop with soft solder. Connections to be removed to make fixes, but if leak is worse than before then we need to remove a section of beamline with 5 magnets. This would also require ED1 venting (gubbins that hold an ion gauge in place are causing an obstruction). Presently, water leak fills a bucket every 2.5 days. Possible solutions to water leak problem are a) leave as is, b) try fixing properly. Consensus is to attempt to fix properly this week. o Controls: Have fixed Epics ED1 cathode voltage and read-back, they are now sensible. Rolf Keitel states red collision light for slits will be implemented. Don Dale to look at read-back on Q1 & Q6. One point to note is that tunes are saved according to current set point. Therefore, old tunes may not be usable as set-points are now different. o BCM2: Has been fixed. FCM bias problems (alleged turning off randomly) are not reproducible. Also, CV enquires as to whether FCCH still reading too low? And should we switch back to accurate current integrators? FC4 will not be switched as Bob Laxdal does not the accurate integrators. We should stick with the setup we are now using. 2. Present Experimental Status ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ JDA:o 40Ca: Tried to find information on other sources that have been used around the world for 40Ca production. Surface source in Sweden gives ~10% 2+/1+ alkaline elements. However, they don't see calcium since they only do fission products but do see Barium. Ionization potential is around ~10 eV for Ba and 11 eV for calcium. Keerthi has approval for receiving technical support to assemble the "hybrid surface source" (HSS) assembly. Approval also given for shop time to complete the parts for microwave source. This source will contain an oven and be used to ionize volatilize calcium as is done in other systems around the world. The spare week in the beam schedule in May will be used for beam development and tests of these sources, The only diagnostic for clearly identify mass 40 is DRAGON. The HSS should be used first, if it works we could go into experimental mode. Ovens are thought to be better suited for providing Al and Mg isotopes. Development for Al and Mg will need to take place in this time slot as well. Could use new beamline Silicon detector (not for 40Ca and 40Ar) for ion identification. Starts on Thursday 5 May. JC: o H3(molecular hydrogen beam: See attachment caggiano.pdf. Safety approval and beam properties need to be completed. Start on-resonance rather than at lowest energy and use Prague magnet for energy calibration. May be possible to transport beam through to MD1 and get a measurement using slits if necessary. Alternatively, mount a surface barrier detector on target ladder and measure directly. CR: o 26Al: Beam due to start on June 13th with a total of 44 shifts. See attachment ruiz.pdf. Energy of resonance is well known. Idea is to use stable beam 27Al(p,g) reaction in place of experimental reaction at a higher energy resonance for tuning and calibration. We could use 24Mg resonance if this tuning procedure doesn't work. No plan to run off-resonance within this time frame as there is insufficient time.