Stability of cooled beams

Because of their high density together with extremely small spreads in betatron frequency and momentum, cooled beams are very vulnerable to incoherent and coherent space-charge effects and instabilities. Moreover, the cooling system itself, i.e. the electron beam in the case of e-cooling, presents large linear and non-linear 'impedances' to the circulating ion beam, in addition to the usual beam-environment coupling impedances of the storage ring. Beam blow-up and losses, attributed to such effects, have been observed in virtually all the existing electron cooling rings. The adverse effects seem to be more pronounced in those rings, like CELSIUS, that are equipped with a cooler capable of reaching the presently highest energy (100 to 300 keV electrons corresponding to 180 to 560 MeV protons). The stability conditions will be revisited with emphasis on the experience gained at LEAR. It will be argued that for all present coolers, three conditions are necessary (although probably not sufficient) for the stability of intense cold beams: (i) operation below transition energy, (ii) active damping to counteract coherent instability, and (iii) careful control of the e-beam neutralisation. An extrapolation to the future 'medium energy coolers', planned to work for (anti)protons of several GeV, will also be attempted

A more sustainable and highly practicable synthesis of aliphatic isocyanides

Synthesis protocols to convert N-formamides into isocyanides using three different dehydration reagents (i.e. p-toluenesulfonyl chloride (p-TsCl), phosphoryl trichloride (POCl3) and the combination of triphenylphosphane (PPh3) and iodine) were investigated and optimized, while considering the principles of green chemistry. Comparison of the yield and the E-factors of the different synthesis procedures revealed that, in contrast to the typically applied POCl3 or phosgene derivatives, p-TsCl was the reagent of choice for non sterically demanding aliphatic mono- or di-N-formamides (yields up to 98% and lowest E-factor 6.45). Apart from a significantly reduced E-factor, p-TsCl is cheap, offers a simplified reaction protocol and work-up, and is less toxic compared to other dehydration reagents. Thus, this procedure offers easier and greener access to aliphatic isocyanide functionalities

Quantum Limits of Stochastic Cooling of a Bosonic Gas

The quantum limits of stochastic cooling of trapped atoms are studied. The energy subtraction due to the applied feedback is shown to contain an additional noise term due to atom-number fluctuations in the feedback region. This novel effect is shown to dominate the cooling efficiency near the condensation point. Furthermore, we show first results that indicate that Bose--Einstein condensation could be reached via stochastic cooling.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Measurement of the lifetime of Pb52+^{52+}, Pb53+^{53+} and Pb54+^{54+} beams at 4.2 MeV per nucleon subject to electron cooling

By measuring the lifetime of stored beams, the recombination of the ions with cooling electrons was investigated. Rates found are larger than expected for radiative electron capture and significantly higher for Pb53+ than for Pb54+ and Pb52+. These results are important for the design of the lead ion injection system for the Large Hadron Collider and for recombination theories

Commissioning and First Operation of the Antiproton Decelerator (AD)

The Antiproton Decelerator (AD) is a simplified source of antiprotons which provides low energy antiprotons for experiments, replacing four machines: AC (Antiproton Collector), AA (Antiproton Accumulator), PS and LEAR (Low Energy Antiproton Ring), shutdown in 1996. The former AC was modified to include deceleration and electron cooling. The AD started operation in July 2000 and has since delivered cooled beam at 100 MeV/c (kinetic energy of 5.3 MeV) to 3 experiments (ASACUSA, ATHENA and ATRAP) for 1500 h. The flux (up to 2.5´105pbars /s delivered in short pulses of 330 ns every 110 s) and the quality of the ejected beam are not far from the design specifications. A linear RF Quadrupole Decelerator (RFQD) was commissioned in November 2000 to post-decelerate the beam for ASACUSA from 5.3 MeV to about 15 keV. Problems encountered in converting the fixed energy AC into a decelerating machine will be outlined, and the present status of the AD, including the performance of the cooling systems and the special diagnostics to cope with beams of less than 107 pbars, will be reviewed. Possible future developments will be sketche

Recent Results on Lead-Ion Accumulation in LEAR for the LHC

To prepare dense bunches of lead ions for the LHC it has been proposed to accumulate the 4.2 MeV/u linac beam in a storage ring with electron cooling. A series of experiments is being performed in the low-energy ring LEAR to test this technique. First results were already reported at the Beam Crystallisation Workshop in Erice in November 1995. Two more recent runs to complement these investigations were concerned with: further study of the beam lifetime; the dependence of the cooling time on optical settings of the storage ring and on neutralization of the electron beam; tests in view of multiturn injection. New results obtained in these two runs in December 1995 and in April 1996 will be discussed in this contribution

Physics with antihydrogen

Performing measurements of the properties of antihydrogen, the bound state of an antiproton and a positron, and comparing the results with those for ordinary hydrogen, has long been seen as a route to test some of the fundamental principles of physics. There has been much experimental progress in this direction in recent years, and antihydrogen is now routinely created and trapped and a range of exciting measurements probing the foundations of modern physics are planned or underway. In this contribution we review the techniques developed to facilitate the capture and manipulation of positrons and antiprotons, along with procedures to bring them together to create antihydrogen. Once formed, the antihydrogen has been detected by its destruction via annihilation or field ionization, and aspects of the methodologies involved are summarized. Magnetic minimum neutral atom traps have been employed to allow some of the antihydrogen created to be held for considerable periods. We describe such devices, and their implementation, along with the cusp magnetic trap used to produce the first evidence for a low-energy beam of antihydrogen. The experiments performed to date on antihydrogen are discussed, including the first observation of a resonant quantum transition and the analyses that have yielded a limit on the electrical neutrality of the anti-atom and placed crude bounds on its gravitational behaviour. Our review concludes with an outlook, including the new ELENA extension to the antiproton decelerator facility at CERN, together with summaries of how we envisage the major threads of antihydrogen physics will progress in the coming years

Cryo Electron Tomography of Herpes Simplex Virus during Axonal Transport and Secondary Envelopment in Primary Neurons

During herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV1) egress in neurons, viral particles travel from the neuronal cell body along the axon towards the synapse. Whether HSV1 particles are transported as enveloped virions as proposed by the ‘married’ model or as non-enveloped capsids suggested by the ‘separate’ model is controversial. Specific viral proteins may form a recruitment platform for microtubule motors that catalyze such transport. However, their subviral location has remained elusive. Here we established a system to analyze herpesvirus egress by cryo electron tomography. At 16 h post infection, we observed intra-axonal transport of progeny HSV1 viral particles in dissociated hippocampal neurons by live-cell fluorescence microscopy. Cryo electron tomography of frozen-hydrated neurons revealed that most egressing capsids were transported independently of the viral envelope. Unexpectedly, we found not only DNA-containing capsids (cytosolic C-capsids), but also capsids lacking DNA (cytosolic A-/B-capsids) in mid-axon regions. Subvolume averaging revealed lower amounts of tegument on cytosolic A-/B-capsids than on C-capsids. Nevertheless, all capsid types underwent active axonal transport. Therefore, even few tegument proteins on the capsid vertices seemed to suffice for transport. Secondary envelopment of capsids was observed at axon terminals. On their luminal face, the enveloping vesicles were studded with typical glycoprotein-like spikes. Furthermore, we noted an accretion of tegument density at the concave cytosolic face of the vesicle membrane in close proximity to the capsids. Three-dimensional analysis revealed that these assembly sites lacked cytoskeletal elements, but that filamentous actin surrounded them and formed an assembly compartment. Our data support the ‘separate model’ for HSV1 egress, i.e. progeny herpes viruses being transported along axons as subassemblies and not as complete virions within transport vesicles