First Results from the LEIR Ionisation Profile Monitors

The role of the Low Energy Ion Ring, LEIR, is to transform long pulses of lead ions from the Linac 3 to short dense bunches for transfer to the LHC. This is accomplished by the accumulation of up to 4 Linac pulses by electron cooling. In order to non-destructively monitor the cooling performance and determine the accumulated beam characteristics, two prototype ionisation profile monitors have been built and were tested during the LEIR commissioning runs with O4+ and Pb54+ ions in 2006. In this paper we present the results obtained with the prototype monitors, the problems encountered and describe the modifications made for the final design. The modified monitors have been installed on the LEIR machine and are waiting for the next ion run planned in August

Radial and latitudinal gradients of anomalous cosmic ray oxygen in the inner heliosphere

We use data from the Ulysses, Advanced Composition Explorer, and Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory spacecraft to determine the radial and latitudinal gradients of anomalous cosmic ray oxygen in two energy ranges from 4.5–15.6 MeV/nuc in the inner heliosphere for the first time during an A0. The latitudinal gradient is consistent with zero and in the range −0.3 to 0.4%/degree, suggesting that during A<0 these particles are not able to propagate into the inner heliosphere by rapid drift along the heliospheric current sheet if the tilt of the sheet is as large as 30 degrees

Cooled Beam Diagnostics on LEIR

Electron cooling is central in the preparation of dense bunches of lead beams for the LHC. Ion beam pulses from the LINAC3 are transformed into short highbrightness bunches using multi-turn injection, cooling and accumulation in the Low Energy Ion Ring, LEIR [1]. The cooling process must therefore be continuously monitored in order to guarantee that the lead ions have the required characteristics in terms of beam size and momentum spread. In LEIR a number of systems have been developed to perform these measurements. These include Schottky diagnostics, ionisation profile monitors and scrapers. Along with their associated acquisition and analysis software packages these instruments have proved to be invaluable for the optimisation of the electron cooler

Evaluating the effects of size in linesets

LineSets represent information about sets by drawing one line for each set on an existing visualization of data items. This paper addresses the following question: does manipulating the size of visual elements affect the comprehension of LineSets? We empirically evaluated two types of size treatments applied to LineSets drawn on networks: varying set-line thickness, to reflect relative set cardinality, and varying node diameter, to reflect data items' relative degree of connectivity. The evaluation required participants to perform tasks that were thought to be aided by the size variations alongside tasks where no benefit was anticipated. Viewing comprehension through accuracy and time performance, we found that varying set-line thickness and node diameter significantly improves the effectiveness of LineSets. As a consequence, this research leads to the recommendation that LineSets vary sizes of lines and nodes

Galactic Abundances: Report of Working Group 3

We summarize the various methods and their limitations and strengths to derive galactic abundances from in-situ and remote-sensing measurements, both from ground-based observations and from instruments in space. Because galactic abundances evolve in time and space it is important to obtain information with a variety of different methods covering different regions from the Very Local Insterstellar Medium (VLISM) to the distant galaxy, and different times throughout the evolution of the galaxy. We discuss the study of the present-day VLISM with neutral gas, pickup ions, and Anomalous Cosmic Rays, the study of the local interstellar medium (ISM) at distances <1.5 kpc utilizing absorption line measurements in H I clouds, and the study of galactic cosmic rays, sampling contemporary (~15 Myr) sources in the local ISM within a few kiloparsec of the solar system. Solar system abundances, derived from solar abundances and meteorite studies are discussed in several other chapters of this volume. They provide samples of matter from the ISM from the time of solar system format ion, about 4.5 Gyr ago. The evolution of galactic abundances on longer time scales is discussed in the context of nuclear synthesis in the various contributing stellar objects

The State of Self-Organized Criticality of the Sun During the Last 3 Solar Cycles. I. Observations

We analyze the occurrence frequency distributions of peak fluxes $P$, total fluxes $E$, and durations $T$ of solar flares over the last three solar cycles (during 1980--2010) from hard X-ray data of HXRBS/SMM, BATSE/CGRO, and RHESSI. From the synthesized data we find powerlaw slopes with mean values of $\alpha_P=1.72\pm0.08$ for the peak flux, $\alpha_E=1.60\pm0.14$ for the total flux, and $\alpha_T=1.98\pm0.35$ for flare durations. We find a systematic anti-correlation of the powerlaw slope of peak fluxes as a function of the solar cycle, varying with an approximate sinusoidal variation $\alpha_P(t)=\alpha_0+\Delta \alpha \cos{[2\pi (t-t_0)/T_{cycle}]}$, with a mean of $\alpha_0=1.73$, a variation of $\Delta \alpha =0.14$, a solar cycle period $T_{cycle}=12.6$ yrs, and a cycle minimum time $t_0=1984.1$. The powerlaw slope is flattest during the maximum of a solar cycle, which indicates a higher magnetic complexity of the solar corona that leads to an overproportional rate of powerful flares.Comment: subm. to Solar Physic

Overview of the recent operation of the AAC and LEAR for the low-energy antiproton physics programme

This paper reviews the recent performance of the AAC and LEAR. Activities on the AAC include the successful exploitation of a magnetic horn as an antiproton collector lens and an energy-saving mode of operation, which has been possible since 1992, when LEAR became the only client of the AAC. LEAR worked in its full momentum range between 100 MeV/c and 2 GeV/c, with perform-ance (intensities, ejection modes and spill length) exceeding the design specifications. Improvements are described, which contributed to the quality of the beam delivered to experiments. The reliability and availability of the antiproton machines are also discussed

Experimental investigation of electron cooling and stacking of lead ions in a low energy accumulation ring

This report gives the results of a programme of experimental investigations, which were carried out to test stacking of lead ions in a storage ring (the former Low Energy Antiproton Ring, LEAR) at 4.2 MeV per nucleon. The motivation was to demonstrate the feasibility of gaining the large factor in the phase-space density required for injection into the LHC. In the first part of the report, the layout of the experiments is described, the choice of the parameters of the electron cooling system used for stacking is reported and the multi-turn injection using horizontal- and longitudinal- (and in the final project also vertical-) phase space is discussed. In the second part the experimental results are presented. Factors of vital importance are the stacking efficiency, the beam life-time and the cooling time of the ions. The beam decay owing to charge exchange with the residual gas and to recombination by the capture of cooling electrons was intensively studied. Beam instabilities and space-charge effects in the ion beam turned out to be additional, although less serious, limitations of the accumulation rate. The cooling speed as a function of cooler and storage-ring properties was investigated over a wide range of parameters. Among the 'surprises' encountered are an anomalously fast recombination rate for certain ion charge states (Pb53+), a strong dependence of the cooling time on the dispersion function of the storage ring, and an intensity-dependent outgassing of equipment in the vacuum chamber. After a careful choice of parameters and antidotes, an overall factor of 120 in intensity could be gained, by multi-turn injection and stacking for 4 s. The intensity obtained ($6 x 10^8$ ions with a length corresponding to four LHC bunches) is only a factor of two short of the LHC requirement, and the stacking time (4 s instead of 2 s foreseen for filling each LHC ring in 8 min) is another factor of two off