Design of the 7 MeV/u, 217 MHz Injector Linac for the Proposed Ion Beam Facility for Cancer Therapy at the Clinic in Heidelberg

A dedicated clinical synchrotron facility for cancer therapy using energetic proton and ion beams (C, He and O) has been designed at GSI for the Radiologische Universitaetsklinik at Heidelberg, Germany. The design of the injector linac is presented. Suitable ion sources are discussed and results of ion source test measurements are reported. The LEBT allows for switching between two ion sources. A short RFQ accelerates the ions from 8 keV/u to 400 keV/u. It is followed by a very compact beam matching section and a 3.8 m long IH-type drift tube linac for the acceleration to 7 MeV/u. Both rf structures are designed for a resonance frequency of 216.816 MHz and for ion mass-to-charge ratios up to A/q = 3 (12C4+, (H_3)+, 3He+, 16O6+).Comment: Contribution to the LINAC2000 Proceedings, Paper ID: MOD1

Development of Rebunching Cavities at IAP

A focus of work at IAP has been the development and optimization of spiral loaded cavities since the 1970s [A. Schempp et al, NIM 135, 409 (1976)]. These cavities feature a high efficiency, a compact design and a big variety of possible fields of application. They find use both as bunchers and post accelerators to vary the final energy of the beam. In comparison to other available designs, the advantage of these structures lies in their small size. Furthermore they can easily be tuned to the required resonance frequency by varying the length of the spiral. Due to the small size of the cavities the required budget can also be kept low. Here, two slightly different types of spiral loaded cavities, which were built for the REX-ISOLDE project at CERN and the intensity upgrade program at GSI are being discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 9 figures PRST-AB special LINAC 2000 edition with additional information in comparison to the 3 pages LINAC paper physics/000708

Low Power Measurements on a Finger Drift Tube Linac

The efficiency of RFQs decreases at particle energies higher than a few MeV/u and thus typically DTL structures are used in this energy region. However, the rf field in the gap always has a defocusing influence on the beam. In order to compensate this effect, fingers with quadrupole symmetry were added to the drift tubes, the focusing fingers do not need an additional power source or feed through. Beam dynamics have been studied with the code RFQSIM. Detailed analysis of the field distribution was done and the geometry of the finger array has been optimized with respect to beam dynamics. A prototype cavity with finger drift tubes was built and low power measurements were done. In this contribution, the results of the rf simulation with Microwave Studio are compared to bead perturbation measurements and the focusing effect on the beam is discussed

Complex Evolution of a Y-Chromosomal Double Homeobox 4 (DUX4)-Related Gene Family in Hominoids

The human Y chromosome carries four human Y-chromosomal euchromatin/heterochromatin transition regions, all of which are characterized by the presence of interchromosomal segmental duplications. The Yq11.1/Yq11.21 transition region harbours a peculiar segment composed of an imperfectly organized tandem-repeat structure encoding four members of the double homeobox (DUX) gene family. By comparative fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) analysis we have documented the primary appearance of Y-chromosomal DUX genes (DUXY) on the gibbon Y chromosome. The major amplification and dispersal of DUXY paralogs occurred after the gibbon and hominid lineages had diverged. Orthologous DUXY loci of human and chimpanzee show a highly similar structural organization. Sequence alignment survey, phylogenetic reconstruction and recombination detection analyses of human and chimpanzee DUXY genes revealed the existence of all copies in a common ancestor. Comparative analysis of the circumjacent beta-satellites indicated that DUXY genes and beta-satellites evolved in concert. However, evolutionary forces acting on DUXY genes may have induced amino acid sequence differences in the orthologous chimpanzee and human DUXY open reading frames (ORFs). The acquisition of complete ORFs in human copies might relate to evolutionary advantageous functions indicating neo-functionalization. We propose an evolutionary scenario in which an ancestral tandem array DUX gene cassette transposed to the hominoid Y chromosome followed by lineage-specific chromosomal rearrangements paved the way for a species-specific evolution of the Y-chromosomal members of a large highly diverged homeobox gene family

Chromosomal Localization of the Carcinoembryonic Antigen Gene Family and Differential Expression in Various Tumors

Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) is a glycoprotein which is important as a tumor marker for a number of human cancers. It is a member of a gene family comprising about 10 closely related genes. In order to characterize mUNAs transcribed from individual genes we have identified by DNA and RNA hybridization experiments, gene-specific sequences from the 3 ' noncoding regions of CEA, and of nonspecific cross-reacting antigen (NCA) mRNAs, which have been recently cloned. With these probes, CEA mRNAs with lengths of 3.5 and 3.0 kilobases and an NCA mRNA species of 2.5 kilobases were identified in various human tumors. A 2.2-kilobase mRNA species, however, could only be detected in leu kocytes of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia by hybridization with a probe from the immunoglobulin-like repeat domain of CEA. This region is known to be very similar among the various members of the CEA gene family, and indeed the probe hybridizes with all four mRNA species. In situ hybridization with a cross-hybridizing probe from the NCA gene localized the members of the CEA gene family to the short and to the long arm of chromosome 19. In addition, a CEA cDNA probe was found to hybridize to the long arm of chromosome 19 only

An experimental approach for investigating many-body phenomena in Rydberg-interacting quantum systems

Recent developments in the study of ultracold Rydberg gases demand an advanced level of experimental sophistication, in which high atomic and optical densities must be combined with excellent control of external fields and sensitive Rydberg atom detection. We describe a tailored experimental system used to produce and study Rydberg-interacting atoms excited from dense ultracold atomic gases. The experiment has been optimized for fast duty cycles using a high flux cold atom source and a three beam optical dipole trap. The latter enables tuning of the atomic density and temperature over several orders of magnitude, all the way to the Bose-Einstein condensation transition. An electrode structure surrounding the atoms allows for precise control over electric fields and single-particle sensitive field ionization detection of Rydberg atoms. We review two experiments which highlight the influence of strong Rydberg--Rydberg interactions on different many-body systems. First, the Rydberg blockade effect is used to pre-structure an atomic gas prior to its spontaneous evolution into an ultracold plasma. Second, hybrid states of photons and atoms called dark-state polaritons are studied. By looking at the statistical distribution of Rydberg excited atoms we reveal correlations between dark-state polaritons. These experiments will ultimately provide a deeper understanding of many-body phenomena in strongly-interacting regimes, including the study of strongly-coupled plasmas and interfaces between atoms and light at the quantum level.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures; submitted to a special issue of 'Frontiers of Physics' dedicated to 'Quantum Foundation and Technology: Frontiers and Future