Nuclear science at MSU

The National Science Foundation (NSF) currently provides more than $20 million each year to operate the NSCL and support nuclear science research at MSU. NSF support for nuclear physics on MSU’s East Lansing campus dates back to the construction of the K50 cyclotron in 1961. The K50 was the world’s first precision-energy cyclotron with single-turn extraction, a capability that laid the foundation for a high-quality nuclear structure research program with high international visibility.

In the late 1970s, the NSF/Department of Energy Nuclear Science Advisory Committee recommended construction of two superconducting cyclotrons and establishment of NSCL as a national user facility. Today, NSCL is the nation’s flagship rare isotope user facility. NSCL serves more than 700 researchers from 32 countries.

Many students continue to benefit from the research and education opportunities made possible by significant investments by NSF and MSU in advanced equipment in a university setting where they work side by side with talented faculty and staff. NSCL is the nation’s largest university campus-based nuclear science laboratory. The laboratory employs more than 100 students and provides them a wide range of valuable hands-on learning opportunities. U.S. News & World Report ranks MSU’s graduate program in nuclear physics No. 2 in the nation (behind only Massachusetts Institute of Technology).

In 2001, NSCL completed the Coupled Cyclotron Facility (CCF) with funds from NSF and MSU. The CCF provides world-leading rare isotope research opportunities to NSCL users. Demand from the scientific community for research time at NSCL is very high. An external Program Advisory Committee of international experts meets once or twice each year to review proposals for research at NSCL; only experiments with the greatest scientific potential are recommended for beam time. The results of these experiments are published in high-quality, peer-reviewed scientific journals and reported at national and international conferences. Highlights and many details can be found at the NSCL Web site.

Accomplishments

NSCL faculty and staff have an excellent international reputation for technical and scientific innovation. Major accomplishments over the years include the following:

• K50 cyclotron (1961)—world’s first high-resolution isochronous cyclotron using new single-turn extraction techniques
• K500 cyclotron (1975)—world’s first operational superconducting cyclotron, which was copied by several intuitions around the world
• K1200 cyclotron (1988)—world’s most powerful superconducting cyclotron for nearly two decades
• A1200 fragment separator (1990)—world’s first superconducting fragment separator, which provided rare isotope beams to all of the experimental vaults
• S800 spectrograph (1993)—world’s first superconducting beam analysis and spectrograph using a dispersion-matching technique
• state-of-the-art experimental apparatus (mid-1990s to present)—wide variety of charged-particle, gamma-ray, and neutron-detection arrays; high-speed tracking detectors; high-granularity beta-decay detection system suitable for use with cocktail beams; superconducting sweeper magnet to allow neutron-coincidence experiments around zero degrees; helium gas cell followed by a low-energy beam transport and ion-trap system for precision mass measurements; radio frequency fragment separator for background suppression with very proton-rich beams; and a digital data-acquisition system for improved gamma-ray tracking
• ReA3 reaccelerated beam program (2010*)—unique capability worldwide to reaccelerate stopped beams of rare isotopes produced by projectile fragmentation

*Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to read PDF documents.