456 research outputs found
New beam for the CERN fixed target heavy ion programme
The physicists of the CERN heavy ion community (SPS fixed target physics) have requested lighter ions than the traditional lead ions, to scale their results and to check their theories. Studies have been carried out to investigate the behaviour of the ECR4 for the production of an indium beam. Stability problems and the low melting point of indium required some modifications to the oven power control system which will also benefit normal lead ion production. Present results of the source behaviour and the ion beam characteristics will be presented
Options for upgrading the intensity of the CERN lead pre-injector ion source
CERN's heavy ion pre-injector has been in service since 1994, providing lead ions for fixed target collisions at 177 GeV per nucleon in the SPS. In the LHC era, heavy ion collisions require an increase in the beam brightness, compared to the present injector system of Linac 3, Proton Synchrotron Booster and the Proton Synchrotron. Stacking and cooling ions in a Low Energy Ion Ring should find the largest part of this increase. However, further improvements can be envisaged by upgrading the pre-injector and source. The performance and limitations of the present source and Linac 3 will be discussed, and options for increasing the source brightness will be presented. These options consist of upgrades of the ECR Source to higher frequencies, or its replacement with a Laser Ion Source
Studies on ECR4 for the CERN ion programme
The CERN heavy ion community, and some other high energy physics experiments, are starting to demand other ions, both heavy and light, in addition to the traditional lead ions. Studies of the behaviour of the afterglow for different operation modes of the ECR4 at CERN have been continued to try to understand the differences between pulsed afterglow and continuous operation, and their effect on ion yield and beam reproducibility. The progress in adapting the source and ion beam characteristics to meet the new demands will be presented, as will new information on voltage holding problems in the extraction
Effect of a Biased Probe on the Afterglow Operation of an ECR4 Ion Source
Various experiments have been performed on a 14.5 GHz ECR4 in order to improve the ion yield. The source runs in pulsed afterglow mode, and provides currents ~120 emA of Pb27+ to the CERN Heavy Ion Facility on an operational basis. In the search for higher beam intensities, the effects of a pulsed biased disk on axis at the injection side were investigated with different pulse timing and voltage settings. No proof for absolute higher intensities was seen for any of these modifications. However, the yield from a poorly tuned/low-performing source could be improved and the extracted pulse was less noisy with bias voltage applied. The fast response on the bias implies that increases/decreases are not due to ionisation processes. A good tune for high yield of high charge states during the afterglow coincides with a high plasma potential
Ion-stimulated gas desorption yields and their dependence on the surface preparation of stainless steel
Ion-induced gas desorption yields were investigated for 4.2 MeV/u lead ions incident on 316 LN stainless steel surfaces. Focussed on a possible application for the Low Energy Ion Ring (LEIR) vacuum system, the influence of surface treatments like chemical etching, electropolishing and gold-coating on the desorption yields was studied with accelerator-type vacuum chambers. The surface composition of similar prepared samples was investigated with X-ray Photoemission Spectroscopy (XPS). Desorption yields for H2, CH4, CO, Ar and CO2, which are of fundamental interest for LEIR and future accelerator applications, are reported as a function of impact angle, ion dose and charge state (+27, +53) of the lead ion beam
Universally diverging Grueneisen parameter and the magnetocaloric effect close to quantum critical points
At a generic quantum critical point, the thermal expansion is more
singular than the specific heat . Consequently, the "Gr\"uneisen ratio'',
\GE=\alpha/c_p, diverges. When scaling applies, \GE \sim T^{-1/(\nu z)} at
the critical pressure , providing a means to measure the scaling
dimension of the most relevant operator that pressure couples to; in the
alternative limit and , \GE \sim \frac{1}{p-p_c} with a
prefactor that is, up to the molar volume, a simple {\it universal} combination
of critical exponents. For a magnetic-field driven transition, similar
relations hold for the magnetocaloric effect .
Finally, we determine the corrections to scaling in a class of metallic quantum
critical points.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure; general discussion on how the Grueneisen exponent
measures the scaling dimension of the most relevant operator at any QCP is
expande
Low temperature thermodynamic properties near the field-induced quantum critical point in DTN
We present a comprehensive experimental and theoretical investigation of the
thermodynamic properties: specific heat, magnetization and thermal expansion in
the vicinity of the field-induced quantum critical point (QCP) around the lower
critical field \,T in DTN . A behavior in the
specific heat and magnetization is observed at very low temperatures at
that is consistent with the universality class of Bose-Einstein
condensation of magnons. The temperature dependence of the thermal expansion
coefficient at shows minor deviations from the expected
behavior. Our experimental study is complemented by analytical calculations and
Quantum Monte Carlo simulations, which reproduce nicely the measured
quantities. We analyze the thermal and the magnetic Gr\"{u}neisen parameters
that are ideal quantities to identify QCPs. Both parameters diverge at
with the expected power law. By using the Ehrenfest relations at the
second order phase transition, we are able to estimate the pressure
dependencies of the characteristic temperature and field scales.Comment: 11 paged, 10 figures, submitted to PR
Sequential localization of a complex electron fluid
Complex and correlated quantum systems with promise for new functionality
often involve entwined electronic degrees of freedom. In such materials, highly
unusual properties emerge and could be the result of electron localization.
Here, a cubic heavy fermion metal governed by spins and orbitals is chosen as a
model system for this physics. Its properties are found to originate from
surprisingly simple low-energy behavior, with two distinct localization
transitions driven by a single degree of freedom at a time. This result is
unexpected, but we are able to understand it by advancing the notion of
sequential destruction of an SU(4) spin-orbital-coupled Kondo entanglement. Our
results implicate electron localization as a unified framework for strongly
correlated materials and suggest ways to exploit multiple degrees of freedom
for quantum engineering.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figures (preprint format
Degradation Kinetics of Lignocellulolytic Enzymes in a Biogas Reactor Using Quantitative Mass Spectrometry
The supplementation of lignocellulose-degrading enzymes can be used to enhance the performance of biogas production in industrial biogas plants. Since the structural stability of these enzyme preparations is essential for efficient application, reliable methods for the assessment of enzyme stability are crucial. Here, a mass-spectrometric-based assay was established to monitor the structural stability of enzymes, i.e., the structural integrity of these proteins, in anaerobic digestion (AD). The analysis of extracts of Lentinula edodes revealed the rapid degradation of lignocellulose-degrading enzymes, with an approximate half-life of 1.5 h. The observed low structural stability of lignocellulose-degrading enzymes in AD corresponded with previous results obtained for biogas content. The established workflow can be easily adapted for the monitoring of other enzyme formulations and provides a platform for evaluating the effects of enzyme additions in AD, together with a characterization of the biochemical methane potential used in order to determine the biodegradability of organic substrates
Thermodynamic Properties of the One-Dimensional Extended Quantum Compass Model in the Presence of a Transverse Field
The presence of a quantum critical point can significantly affect the
thermodynamic properties of a material at finite temperatures. This is
reflected, e.g., in the entropy landscape S(T; c) in the vicinity of a quantum
critical point, yielding particularly strong variations for varying the tuning
parameter c such as magnetic field. In this work we have studied the
thermodynamic properties of the quantum compass model in the presence of a
transverse field. The specific heat, entropy and cooling rate under an
adiabatic demagnetization process have been calculated. During an adiabatic
(de)magnetization process temperature drops in the vicinity of a field-induced
zero-temperature quantum phase transitions. However close to field-induced
quantum phase transitions we observe a large magnetocaloric effect
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