Scientific Opportunities with a RARE-ISOTOPE FACILITY in the United States
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, D.C.
www.nap.edu
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
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NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
This study was supported by Contract No. DE-FG02-05ER-41401 between the National Academy of Sciences and the Department of Energy and Grant No. PHY-0541656 between the National Academy of Sciences and the National Science Foundation. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations or agencies that provided support for the project.
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-10408-1
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-10408-4
Cover: A chart of the nuclides overlays a view from the cameras of the Hubble Space Telescope. The transparent region of the nuclide chart (which shows isotopes as a function of the number of neutrons and protons in the nucleus) represents the unknown territory of the isotope landscape. Many rare isotopes play an important role in astrophysics, especially stellar nucleosynthesis. Courtesy of K. Rykaczewski and A. Rykaczewski.
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Copyright 2007 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
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RARE-ISOTOPE SCIENCE ASSESSMENT COMMITTEE
JOHN F. AHEARNE,
Sigma Xi and Duke University,
Co-Chair
STUART J. FREEDMAN,
University of California at Berkeley,
Co-Chair
RICARDO ALARCON,
Arizona State University
PETER BRAUN-MUNZINGER,
Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI)
ADAM S. BURROWS,
University of Arizona
RICHARD F. CASTEN,
Yale University
YANGLAI CHO,1
Argonne National Laboratory (retired)
GERALD T. GARVEY,
Los Alamos National Laboratory
WICK C. HAXTON,
University of Washington
ROBERT L. JAFFE,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
NOEMIE B. KOLLER,
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
STEPHEN B. LIBBY,
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
SHOJI NAGAMIYA,
Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex
WITOLD NAZAREWICZ,
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
MICHAEL V. ROMALIS,
Princeton University
PAUL SCHMOR, TRIUMF
MICHAEL C.F. WIESCHER,
University of Notre Dame
STANFORD E. WOOSLEY,
University of California at Santa Cruz
Staff
DONALD C. SHAPERO, Director, Board on Physics and Astronomy
TIMOTHY I. MEYER, Senior Program Officer
DAVID B. LANG, Research Associate
PAMELA A. LEWIS, Program Associate
PHILLIP D. LONG, Senior Program Assistant (January 2006–September 2006)
VAN AN, Financial Associate
BOARD ON PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY
ANNEILA L. SARGENT,
California Institute of Technology,
Chair
MARC A. KASTNER,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Vice-Chair
JOANNA AIZENBERG,
Lucent Technologies
JONATHAN A. BAGGER,
Johns Hopkins University
JAMES E. BRAU,
University of Oregon
RONALD C. DAVIDSON,
Princeton University
RAYMOND J. FONCK,
University of Wisconsin at Madison
ANDREA M. GHEZ,
University of California at Los Angeles
PETER F. GREEN,
University of Michigan
WICK C. HAXTON,
University of Washington
FRANCES HELLMAN,
University of California at Berkeley
JOSEPH HEZIR,
EOP Group, Inc.
ERICH P. IPPEN,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
ALLAN H. MacDONALD,
University of Texas at Austin
CHRISTOPHER F. McKEE,
University of California at Berkeley
HOMER A. NEAL,
University of Michigan
JOSE N. ONUCHIC,
University of California at San Diego
WILLIAM D. PHILLIPS,
National Institute of Standards and Technology
THOMAS N. THEIS,
IBM T.J.Watson Research Center
C. MEGAN URRY,
Yale University
Staff
DONALD C. SHAPERO, Director
TIMOTHY I. MEYER, Senior Program Officer
ROBERT L. RIEMER, Senior Program Officer
NATALIA J. MELCER, Program Officer
BRIAN D. DEWHURST, Senior Program Associate
DAVID B. LANG, Research Associate
PAMELA A. LEWIS, Program Associate
VAN AN, Financial Associate
MATTHEW T. BOWEN,
Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy
Graduate Fellow
Preface
The Rare-Isotope Science Assessment Committee (RISAC) was charged by the National Research Council’s Board on Physics and Astronomy (BPA), the Department of Energy (DOE), and the National Science Foundation to define the science agenda for a next-generation U.S. Facility for Rare-Isotope Beams (FRIB); the full charge is presented in Appendix A. By design RISAC consists of scientists who work mostly outside the rare-isotope science community (see Appendix F for biographical sketches of the committee members). After RISAC had begun its meetings, the DOE announced that the budget of what was then understood as the Rare Isotope Accelerator (RIA) should be reduced by half and that there would be no project-engineering definition funding available until 2011.
These developments in facility definition and projected schedule presented the committee with two chief challenges. First, an effort that had started as an analysis of the most compelling intellectual territory addressed by a well-defined facility was transformed into the inverse task. Thus, the committee focused first on the scientific questions of highest importance and then speculated about the technical capabilities that a next-generation facility (FRIB) would need to make progress. Second, with a shift in the anticipated construction start from 2008 to 2011 at the earliest, the committee was forced to guess at not only the scientific developments more than a decade in the future but also the evolving scientific activities of other facilities and nations around the world.
Nevertheless, in response to the DOE announcement and the charge for this
study, the committee has focused on articulating the science that could be accomplished at a reduced-scope rare-isotope facility, referred to as a FRIB or a U.S. FRIB in this report. The committee offers conclusions on the potential impact of such a facility in the areas of nuclear structure, nuclear astrophysics, and fundamental interactions, as well as various applications of a FRIB, including national security. The charge called for an evaluation of the impact of a FRIB on the overall context of nuclear physics both nationally and internationally.
Representatives from major regions of the world (Europe/Germany, Japan, and Canada) that have planned and operated existing rare-isotope beam facilities provided the basis for the committee’s advice about the international context of a FRIB. To avoid the appearance of bias, the committee membership did not include representatives actively participating in the formulation of proposals to build a U.S. FRIB. However, the committee did hear testimony from members of those groups (in addition to many others; the meeting agendas are presented in Appendix B). The committee heard presentations from appropriate experts about applications of a FRIB to areas of medical research, stockpile stewardship, and national security. RISAC was not asked to recommend a specific facility or to compare a FRIB with other U.S. initiatives in nuclear science. Furthermore, RISAC was not asked to provide overall guidance on how the United States might most effectively leverage its investments in nuclear science as part of a global program.
The committee thanks the speakers who made formal presentations at each of the meetings; their presentations and the ensuing discussions were extremely informative and had a significant impact on the committee’s deliberations. And in general, the committee acknowledges the extra work required to prepare remarks addressing the broad spectrum of expertise on the committee. The committee also thanks BPA staff members Donald Shapero, Timothy Meyer, and Phillip Long for their guidance and assistance throughout this process.
On a more personal note, we would also like to extend special thanks and appreciation to RISAC member Gerry Garvey for his help in skillfully weaving together the views of the committee into a consistent whole and in responding to the reviews, which were particularly thoughtful and helpful in refining the report.
John F. Ahearne, Co-Chair
Stuart J. Freedman, Co-Chair
Rare-Isotope Science Assessment Committee
Acknowledgment of Reviewers
This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the National Research Council’s Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We wish to thank the following individuals for their review of this report:
Gordon A. Baym, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
James E. Brau, University of Oregon,
Hans Geissel, Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI),
Ian G. Halliday, Scottish Universities Physics Alliance and European Science Foundation,
Kees de Jager, Thomas Jefferson National Laboratory,
Kirby W. Kemper, Florida State University,
Kevin S. McFarland, University of Rochester,
Peter Mészáros, Pennsylvania State University,
Cherry A. Murray, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory,
Jean-Michel Poutissou, TRIUMF,
R.G. Hamish Robertson, University of Washington, and
Lee Schroeder, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or recommendations, nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Pierre C. Hohenberg, New York University. Appointed by the National Research Council, he was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring committee and the institution.