Benchmark Experiment to Prove the Role of Projectile Excited States Upon the Ion Stopping in Plasmas.

We report on a precision energy loss measurement and theoretical investigation of 100 keV/u helium ions in a hydrogen-discharge plasma. Collision processes of helium ions with protons, free electrons, and hydrogen atoms are ideally suited for benchmarking plasma stopping-power models. Energy loss results of our experiments are significantly higher than the predictions of traditional effective charge models. We obtained good agreement with our data by solving rate equations, where in addition to the ground state, also excited electronic configurations were considered for the projectile ions. Hence, we demonstrate that excited projectile states, resulting from collisions, leading to capture-, ionization-, and radiative-decay processes, play an important role in the stopping process in plasma.

Search for solar axions by the CERN axion solar telescope with 3He buffer gas: closing the hot dark matter gap.

The CERN Axion Solar Telescope has finished its search for solar axions with (3)He buffer gas, covering the search range 0.64 eV ≲ ma ≲ 1.17 eV. This closes the gap to the cosmological hot dark matter limit and actually overlaps with it. From the absence of excess x rays when the magnet was pointing to the Sun we set a typical upper limit on the axion-photon coupling of gaγ ≲ 3.3 × 10(-10) GeV(-1) at 95% C.L., with the exact value depending on the pressure setting. Future direct solar axion searches will focus on increasing the sensitivity to smaller values of gaγ, for example by the currently discussed next generation helioscope International AXion Observatory.

First observation of the unbound nucleus 15Ne.

We report on the first observation of the unbound proton-rich nucleus 15Ne. Its ground state and first excited state were populated in two-neutron knockout reactions from a beam of 500 MeV/u 17Ne. The 15Ne ground state is found to be unbound by 2.522(66) MeV. The decay proceeds directly to 13O with simultaneous two-proton emission. No evidence for sequential decay via the energetically allowed 2- and 1- states in 14F is observed. The 15Ne ground state is shown to have a strong configuration with two protons in the (sd) shell around 13O with a 63(5)% (1s1/2)2 component.

Energy loss and charge transfer of argon in a laser-generated carbon plasma.

This Letter reports on the measurement of the energy loss and the projectile charge states of argon ions at an energy of 4 MeV/u penetrating a fully ionized carbon plasma. The plasma of n(e)≈10(20) cm(-3) and T(e)≈180 eV is created by two laser beams at λ(Las)=532 nm incident from opposite sides on a thin carbon foil. The resulting plasma is spatially homogenous and allows us to record precise experimental data. The data show an increase of a factor of 2 in the stopping power which is in very good agreement with a specifically developed Monte Carlo code, that allows the calculation of the heavy ion beam's charge state distribution and its energy loss in the plasma.

Search for Dark Matter Axions with CAST-CAPP.

The CAST-CAPP axion haloscope, operating at CERN inside the CAST dipole magnet, has searched for axions in the 19.74 µeV to 22.47 µeV mass range. The detection concept follows the Sikivie haloscope principle, where Dark Matter axions convert into photons within a resonator immersed in a magnetic field. The CAST-CAPP resonator is an array of four individual rectangular cavities inserted in a strong dipole magnet, phase-matched to maximize the detection sensitivity. Here we report on the data acquired for 4124 h from 2019 to 2021. Each cavity is equipped with a fast frequency tuning mechanism of 10 MHz/ min between 4.774 GHz and 5.434 GHz. In the present work, we exclude axion-photon couplings for virialized galactic axions down to gaγγ = 8 × 10-14 GeV-1 at the 90% confidence level. The here implemented phase-matching technique also allows for future large-scale upgrades.

Search for sub-eV mass solar axions by the CERN Axion Solar Telescope with 3He buffer gas.

The CERN Axion Solar Telescope (CAST) has extended its search for solar axions by using (3)He as a buffer gas. At T=1.8 K this allows for larger pressure settings and hence sensitivity to higher axion masses than our previous measurements with (4)He. With about 1 h of data taking at each of 252 different pressure settings we have scanned the axion mass range 0.39 eV≲m(a)≲0.64 eV. From the absence of excess x rays when the magnet was pointing to the Sun we set a typical upper limit on the axion-photon coupling of g(aγ)≲2.3×10(-10) GeV(-1) at 95% C.L., the exact value depending on the pressure setting. Kim-Shifman-Vainshtein-Zakharov axions are excluded at the upper end of our mass range, the first time ever for any solar axion search. In the future we will extend our search to m(a)≲1.15 eV, comfortably overlapping with cosmological hot dark matter bounds.

Transport of intense particle beams in large-scale plasmas.

Transport of particle beams in plasmas is widely employed in fundamental research, industry, and medicine. Due to the high inertia of ion beams, their transport in plasmas is usually assumed to be stable. Here we report the focusing and flapping of intense slab proton beams transporting through large-scale plasmas by using a recently developed kinetic particle-in-cell simulation code. The beam self-focusing effect in the simulation is prominent and agrees well with previous experiments and theories. Moreover, the beam can curve and flap like turbulence as the beam density increases. Simulation and analysis indicate that the self-generated magnetic fields, produced by movement of collisional plasmas, are the dominant driver of such behaviors. By analyzing the spatial growth rate of magnetic energy and energy deposition of injected proton beams, it is found that the focusing and flapping are significantly determined by the injected beam densities and energies. In addition, a remarkable nonlinear beam energy loss is observed. Our research might find application in inertial confinement fusion and also might be of interest to the laboratory astrophysics community.

Large Hadron Collider at CERN: Beams generating high-energy-density matter.

This paper presents numerical simulations that have been carried out to study the thermodynamic and hydrodynamic responses of a solid copper cylindrical target that is facially irradiated along the axis by one of the two Large Hadron Collider (LHC) 7 TeV/ c proton beams. The energy deposition by protons in solid copper has been calculated using an established particle interaction and Monte Carlo code, FLUKA, which is capable of simulating all components of the particle cascades in matter, up to multi-TeV energies. These data have been used as input to a sophisticated two-dimensional hydrodynamic computer code BIG2 that has been employed to study this problem. The prime purpose of these investigations was to assess the damage caused to the equipment if the entire LHC beam is lost at a single place. The FLUKA calculations show that the energy of protons will be deposited in solid copper within about 1 m assuming constant material parameters. Nevertheless, our hydrodynamic simulations have shown that the energy deposition region will extend to a length of about 35 m over the beam duration. This is due to the fact that first few tens of bunches deposit sufficient energy that leads to high pressure that generates an outgoing radial shock wave. Shock propagation leads to continuous reduction in the density at the target center that allows the protons delivered in subsequent bunches to penetrate deeper and deeper into the target. This phenomenon has also been seen in case of heavy-ion heated targets [N. A. Tahir, A. Kozyreva, P. Spiller, D. H. H. Hoffmann, and A. Shutov, Phys. Rev. E 63, 036407 (2001)]. This effect needs to be considered in the design of a sacrificial beam stopper. These simulations have also shown that the target is severely damaged and is converted into a huge sample of high-energy density (HED) matter. In fact, the inner part of the target is transformed into a strongly coupled plasma with fairly uniform physical conditions. This work, therefore, has suggested an additional very important application of the LHC, namely, studies of HED states in matter.

Particle-in-cell simulation of transport and energy deposition of intense proton beams in solid-state materials.

A particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation code is used to investigate the transport and energy deposition of an intense proton beam in solid-state material. This code is able to simulate close particle interactions by using a Monte Carlo binary collision model. Such a model takes into account all related interactions between the incident protons and material particles, e.g., proton-nucleus, proton-bound-electron, and proton-free-electron collisions. This code also includes a Monte Carlo model for the collisional ionization and electron-ion recombination as well as the depression of the ionization potential by shielding of surrounding particles. Moreover, for intense proton beams, in order to include collective electromagnetic effects, significantly speed up the simulation, and simultaneously avoid numerical instabilities, an approach that combines the PIC method with a reduced model of high-density plasma based on Ohm's law is used. Simulation results indicate that the collective electromagnetic effects have a significant influence on the transport and energy deposition of proton beams. The Ohmic electric field would increase the stopping power and leads to a shortened range of proton beams in solid. The magnetic field would localize the energy deposition by collimating proton beams, which would otherwise be deflected by the collisions with nuclei.

Richtmyer-Meshkov instability in elastic-plastic media.

An analytical model for the linear Richtmyer-Meshkov instability in solids under conditions of high-energy density is presented, in order to describe the evolution of small perturbations at the solid-vacuum interface. The model shows that plasticity determines the maximum perturbation amplitude and provides simple scaling laws for it as well as for the time when it is reached. After the maximum amplitude is reached, the interface remains oscillating with a period that is determined by the elastic shear modulus. Extensive two-dimensional simulations are presented that show excellent agreement with the analytical model. The results suggest the possibility to experimentally evaluate the yield strength of solids under dynamic conditions by using a Richtmyer-Meshkov-instability-based technique.

High energy proton induced radiation damage of rare earth permanent magnet quadrupoles.

Permanent magnet quadrupoles (PMQs) are an alternative to common electromagnetic quadrupoles especially for fixed rigidity beam transport scenarios at particle accelerators. Using those magnets for experimental setups can result in certain scenarios, in which a PMQ itself may be exposed to a large amount of primary and secondary particles with a broad energy spectrum, interacting with the magnetic material and affecting its magnetic properties. One specific scenario is proton microscopy, where a proton beam traverses an object and a collimator in which a part of the beam is scattered and deflected into PMQs used as part of a diagnostic system. During the commissioning of the PRIOR (Proton Microscope for Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research) high energy proton microscope facility prototype at Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung in 2014, a significant reduction of the image quality was observed which was partially attributed to the demagnetization of the used PMQ lenses and the corresponding decrease of the field quality. In order to study this phenomenon, Monte Carlo simulations were carried out and spare units manufactured from the same magnetic material-single wedges and a fully assembled PMQ module-were deliberately irradiated by a 3.6 GeV intense proton beam. The performed investigations have shown that in proton radiography applications the above described scattering may result in a high irradiation dose in the PMQ magnets. This did not only decrease the overall magnetic strength of the PMQs but also caused a significant degradation of the field quality of an assembled PMQ module by increasing the parasitic multipole field harmonics which effectively makes PMQs impractical for proton radiography applications or similar scenarios.

Richtmyer-Meshkov flow in elastic solids.

Richtmyer-Meshkov flow is studied by means of an analytical model which describes the asymptotic oscillations of a corrugated interface between two perfectly elastic solids after the interaction with a shock wave. The model shows that the flow stability is due to the restoring effect of the elastic force. It provides a simple approximate but still very accurate formula for the oscillation period. It also shows that as it is observed in numerical simulations, the amplitude oscillates around a mean value equal to the post-shock amplitude, and that this is a consequence of the stress free conditions of the material immediately after the shock interaction. Extensive numerical simulations are presented to validate the model results.

Commissioning of the PRIOR proton microscope.

Recently, a new high energy proton microscopy facility PRIOR (Proton Microscope for FAIR Facility for Anti-proton and Ion Research) has been designed, constructed, and successfully commissioned at GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung (Darmstadt, Germany). As a result of the experiments with 3.5-4.5 GeV proton beams delivered by the heavy ion synchrotron SIS-18 of GSI, 30 µm spatial and 10 ns temporal resolutions of the proton microscope have been demonstrated. A new pulsed power setup for studying properties of matter under extremes has been developed for the dynamic commissioning of the PRIOR facility. This paper describes the PRIOR setup as well as the results of the first static and dynamic proton radiography experiments performed at GSI.

Rayleigh-Taylor instability in elastic solids.

We present an analytical model for the Rayleigh-Taylor instability that allows for an approximate but still very accurate and appealing description of the instability physics in the linear regime. The model is based on the second law of Newton and it has been developed with the aim of dealing with the instability of accelerated elastic solids. It yields the asymptotic instability growth rate but also describes the initial transient phase determined by the initial conditions. We have applied the model to solid/solid and solid/fluid interfaces with arbitrary Atwood numbers. The results are in excellent agreement with previous models that yield exact solutions but which are of more limited validity. Our model allows for including more complex physics. In particular, the present approach is expected to lead to a more general theory of the instability that would allow for describing the transition to the plastic regime.

Electron-temperature and energy-flow history in an imploding plasma.

The time-dependent radial distribution of the electron temperature in a 0.6 micros, 220-kA gas-puff z-pinch plasma is studied using spatially-resolved observations of line emission from singly to fivefold ionized oxygen ions during the plasma implosion, up to 50 ns before maximum compression. The temperature obtained, together with the previously determined radial distributions of the electron density, plasma radial velocity, and magnetic field, allows for studying the history of the magnetic-field energy coupling to the plasma by comparing the energy deposition and dissipation rates in the plasma. It is found that at this phase of the implosion, approximately 65% of the energy deposited in the plasma is imparted to the plasma radial flow, with the rest of the energy being converted into internal energy and radiation.

Generation of a hollow ion beam: calculation of the rotation frequency required to accommodate symmetry constraint.

A hollow intense heavy ion beam with an annular focal spot has many important applications. The Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung, Darmstadt is planning to develop a radio frequency wobbler that will rotate the beam at extremely high frequencies and thus create an annular (ring shaped) focal spot. In this paper, we present an analytical model that determines the minimum rotation frequency of the wobbler in order to achieve a high degree of irradiation symmetry (an asymmetry of a few percent) of the target. Estimates for a typical heavy ion imploded target are also presented.

Dynamic confinement of targets heated quasi-isochorically with heavy ion beams.

Isochoric heating of matter by intense heavy ion beams promises to become a fruitful approach to warm dense matter studies. For heating times that are long on the hydrodynamic time scale of the target response a tamped target is essential. The proposed dynamic confinement provides homogeneous target heating by a low-Z tamper, which allows one to apply powerful x-ray scattering diagnostics. To demonstrate the potential of the method, heating of a hydrogen sample with the SIS-18 beam at GSI Darmstadt is investigated numerically. The intense x-ray bursts for diagnostics can be provided by the PHELIX laser currently installed at GSI. In the optimized heating regime, density variations can be reduced to a level of 15% from the initial density value.

Implosion of multilayered cylindrical targets driven by intense heavy ion beams.

An analytical model for the implosion of a multilayered cylindrical target driven by an intense heavy ion beam has been developed. The target is composed of a cylinder of frozen hydrogen or deuterium, which is enclosed in a thick shell of solid lead. This target has been designed for future high-energy-density matter experiments to be carried out at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung, Darmstadt. The model describes the implosion dynamics including the motion of the incident shock and the first reflected shock and allows for calculation of the physical conditions of the hydrogen at stagnation. The model predicts that the conditions of the compressed hydrogen are not sensitive to significant variations in target and beam parameters. These predictions are confirmed by one-dimensional numerical simulations and thus allow for a robust target design.

Charge-exchange-induced two-electron satellite transitions from autoionizing levels in dense plasmas.

Order-of-magnitude anomalously high intensities for two-electron (dielectronic) satellite transitions, originating from the He-like 2s(2) 1S0 and Li-like 1s2s(2) (2)S(1/2) autoionizing states of silicon, have been observed in dense laser-produced plasmas at different laboratories. Spatially resolved, high-resolution spectra and plasma images show that these effects are correlated with an intense emission of the He-like 1s3p 1P-1s(2) 1S lines, as well as the K(alpha) lines. A time-dependent, collisional-radiative model, allowing for non-Maxwellian electron-energy distributions, has been developed for the determination of the relevant nonequilibrium level populations of the silicon ions, and a detailed analysis of the experimental data has been carried out. Taking into account electron density and temperature variations, plasma optical-depth effects, and hot-electron distributions, the spectral simulations are found to be not in agreement with the observations. We propose that highly stripped target ions (e.g., bare nuclei or H-like 1s ground-state ions) are transported into the dense, cold plasma (predominantly consisting of L- and M-shell ions) near the target surface and undergo single- and double-electron charge-transfer processes. The spectral simulations indicate that, in dense and optically thick plasmas, these charge-transfer processes may lead to an enhancement of the intensities of the two-electron transitions by up to a factor of 10 relative to those of the other emission lines, in agreement with the spectral observations.

Time- and spectrally resolved measurements of laser-driven hohlraum radiation.

At the GSI Helmholtz center for heavy-ion research combined experiments with heavy ions and laser-produced plasmas are investigated. As a preparation to utilize indirectly heated targets, where a converter hohlraum provides thermal radiation to create a more homogeneous plasma, this converter target has to be characterized. In this paper the latest results of these measurements are presented. Small spherical cavities with diameters between 600 and 750 µm were heated with laser energies up to 30 J at 532-nm wavelength. Radiation temperatures could be determined by time-resolved as well as time-integrated diagnostics, and maximum values of up to 35 eV were achieved.