Minutes of DRAGON meeting, 5 October 2004.

Present:  Art Olin (AO), Christof Vockenhuber (CV), Dave Hutcheon (DH), 
Dave Ottewell (DFOT), Goetz Ruprecht (GR), Jac Caggiano (JC), John D'Auria (JDA), 
Jonty Pearson (JP), Lothar Buchmann (LB), Peter Machule (PM), Wolf-Rudiger Hannes (WH),
Mike Trinczek (MT) - recorder.


1.  Facility Status:

DFOT - Still need to wire up, leak test, etc the chimney.  It is anticipated that the
Controls person still needs 2 days.

JP will be away for roughly 2 weeks.  Will return 23 Oct.  In meantime will be
taking care of DAQ "high-priority stuff".

AO - During JP absence, will prod Konstantin Olchanski to give us any necessary help.

JDA - We need the z-mask spectrum added to ROOT, in the fullness of time.


2.  Run Summary

a) DAQ

JP - We recommissioned the DAQ and it went very well, despite a couple of small problems.
Will work on improving the underlying software for future flexibility.  Calibrations
need reworking.

DH - Can histograms be added for the Ion Chamber (IC)?

JP - Yes, it will take about a day.

JC - Ever intrepid, volunteers to do so.


b) Revisiting the yield of 21Ne(p,g) at 268 keV

DH - Summarizes:  There was a difference between results (range of roughly 30%) taken 
this summer with Kathryn and those done by Sabine.  The goal was to run again and
(hopefully) locate the source(s) of the discrepancy.

Bottom line:  Undergoing analysis, but we still have a range (roughly 10%).

Some details:  The elastics monitor rate (normalized to current, pressure, ...) went
up with beam intensity!  Potential transmission problems?  Measured transmission was
varying about 80%.  Yield changes with beam position.

Bad:  Can't repeatably measure the same simple, strong resonance.

Tests done:  Looked at old (pre March 2002) tune and compared to current tune.  Old
tune required larger vertical MSlit openings, but generally same as new.  

SX4 on/off had no effect.

We are still lower than the published value of Goerres, which is okay, but we are
troubled by our lack of repeatability.


c) Timing of MCP and DSSSD (local TOF)

CV - MCP now works!  2 ns resolution.

Good:  Can see "very clear" separation of recoils and leakies in E-TOF spectrum.

Bad:  Increasing the bias didn't change the resolution.

Can close slits to increase the energy resolution.  We should be getting < 1 ns, but
are probably limited by the DSSSD.


d) Other

DH - We generally met the objectives of the Runplan.

CV - PGAC/PPAC has 500 ps resolution when done as 2 foils or 2 foils and 1 grid.
When we only run with grids, the resolution is poor, maybe due to field emission.
Will investigate in more detail, since we continue to differ from what is published.

JDA - Do we need to run with both the PGAC and IC?

Next run is with 23Na to look at 500 keV resonance and to look at the low-energy
background for potential JC experiment.


3.  NSERC

JDA - Deadline toward the end of the month.  LB submitting for TUDA, JC for DRAGON.

JC submission will be for new electronics.  He presents quote of all electronics
necessary to run all detectors at the same time using updated DAQ system.

Much discussion.

Focus on how to argue our need to these electronics.  Two main points:

a) We are moving to more complex experiments with tracking and more detectors that
we want to run all at the same time.  This will become necessary to do the 19Ne and
Al experiments properly.

b) It is stupid, wasteful and costly to keep replacing our outdated CAMAC technology
which is constantly breaking.  Time to embrace current standards!

JC will also submit a second application to do 22Na(p,g) (perhaps at Seattle) with a target
made here at ISAC.

He is putting together a list of apparatus and estimates of how much time/people
it will take.


5.  EEC

Deadline 8 Nov for submission.

JDA - As per EEC memo, we need to decide on DRAGON's priorities from the list of
current experiments.  He will circulate via email the list and solicit input.

What about non radioactive beam experiments, such as 12C?  Include them too.

JC - There is a third (unmentioned) category of experiments:  Simple bread and 
butter radioactive experiments that we can do now, even though they are not of 
crucial importance.  Group needs to decide if we will pursue...

In addition, CV (40Ca) and JP (18F) need to decide if they want to submit.


6.  JDA's recent World Tour

ENAM - well attended, no direct ISAC talks but mentioned in other talks
OakRidge - review committee, high power target going well; could be good for ISAC
Santa Fe - Nuclear data conference, 500 people!?! ISAC and DRAGON talk ok


7.  AOB

Next week CV will talk about 40Ca.