Minutes of DRAGON Meeting March 7, 2006.

Present: Lothar Buchmann, Charles Davies, Dieter Frekers, Dave Hutcheon, 
Peter Machule, Dave Ottewell, Jonathan Pearson, Chris Ruiz, Götz Ruprecht,
 Mike Trinczek, Christof Vockenhuber, Ahmed Hussein. (recorder)

1.Meeting called to order at 2:04pm.

2.Minutes of March 2, 2006 meeting approved unchanged.

3.Dave Ottewell, prepared a chart for power supplies’ connections to 
help insure proper wiring of DRAGON’s magnetic elements.

4.Chris Ruiz reported that 24Mg(p,gamma) measurement was made in preparation 
for the Al(p,gamma) experiment. The resonance energies of the Mg measurements 
does not agree with published data and that is probably because the BGO 
threshold were too high.
 
5.Jonty reported on the progress of the alpha acceptance test, 
showing graphs (attached) of the distribution of the alphas on the 
DSSSD at the end of the DRAGON line. The distribution in the x-direction 
seems to be reasonable while the y-distribution is not as good. SX1 and SX2 
seem to have an adverse effect on beam distribution, this effect will be 
investigated further. A graph was shown of the alpha acceptance at the 
final slits and mass slits is attached. Next phase of the study is to get 
data using MCP to compare with DSSSD data, and further investigation of 
the acceptance at the charge slits will be carried out. It is hoped that 
this study will conclude within couple of weeks before the next scheduled 
experiment.
GEANT simulation will be carried out to compare with the alpha data. 
All magnetic field profiles in GEANT will be checked for any possible errors. 
It was suggested that Dave Ottewell check all magnetic elements for any 
possible changes that might have affected their field profiles. 
A mini-meeting to discuss GEANT simulation will take place later this week.

6.Christof presented an extensive report on the current status of the 
analysis of the 40Ca(alpha,gamma) experiment. The highlights of the 
presentation are attached. The coming run for this experiment will be 
used to fill in the gaps in the excitation function.

7.Dave Hucheon is expecting that 10 days are needed for preparation 
for next run. The following is a partial job list for the coming run:

a.Conditioning of the electrostatic dipoles,
b.Prepare the IRIS,
c.Test DRAGON vacuum,
d.Test the gas target

8.Peter is still working on the Roots blowers problem.

9.Dave Hucheon reported on the status of 17O beam development.

10.Items for next week meeting: 

a.Preparation for next run and 
b.Acceptance test.

11.Meeting adjourned at 3:23 pm.