No Arabic abstract
We report on a windowless, high-density, gas flow target at Jefferson Lab that was used to measure $r_p$, the root-mean-square charge radius of the proton. To our knowledge, this is the first such system used in a fixed-target experiment at a (non-storage ring) electron accelerator. The target achieved its design goal of an areal density of 2$times$10$^{18}$ atoms/cm$^2$, with the gas uniformly distributed over the 4 cm length of the cell and less than 1% residual gas outside the cell. This design eliminated scattering from the end caps of the target cell, a problem endemic to previous measurements of the proton charge radius in electron scattering experiments, and permitted a precise, model-independent extraction of $r_p$ by reaching unprecedentedly low values of $Q^2$, the square of the electrons transfer of four-momentum to the proton.
A cryogenic supersonic gas jet target was developed for the MAGIX experiment at the high-intensity electron accelerator MESA. It will be operated as an internal, windowless target in the energy-recovering recirculation arc of the accelerator with different target gases, e.g., hydrogen, deuterium, helium, oxygen, argon, or xenon. Detailed studies have been carried out at the existing A1 multi-spectrometer facility at the electron accelerator MAMI. This paper focuses on the developed handling procedures and diagnostic tools, and on the performance of the gas jet target under beam conditions. Considering the special features of this type of target, it proves to be well suited for a new generation of high-precision electron scattering experiments at high-intensity electron accelerators.
A windowless hydrogen gas target of nominal thickness $10^{19}$ cm$^{-2}$ is an essential component of the DarkLight experiment, which is designed to utilize the megawatt electron beam at an Energy Recovery Linac (ERL). The design of such a target is challenging because the pressure drops by many orders of magnitude between the central, high-density section of the target and the surrounding beamline, resulting in laminar, transitional, and finally molecular flow regimes. The target system was assembled and operated at Jefferson Labs Low Energy Recirculator Facility (LERF) in 2016, and subsequently underwent several revisions and calibration tests at MIT Bates in 2017. The system at dynamic equilibrium was simulated in COMSOL to provide a better understanding of its optimal operation at other working points. We have determined that a windowless gas target with sufficiently high density for DarkLights experimental needs is feasible in an ERL environment.
A multi-cell He gas-scintillator active target, designed for the measurement of photoreaction cross sections, is described. The target has four main chambers, giving an overall thickness of 0.103 $mathrm{g/cm^{2}}$ at an operating pressure of 2 MPa. Scintillations are read out by photomultiplier tubes and the addition of small amounts of $mathrm{N}_{2}$ to the He, to shift the scintillation emission from UV to visible, is discussed. First results of measurements at the MAX IV Laboratory tagged-photon facility show that the target has good timing resolution and can cope well with a high-flux photon beam. The determination of reaction cross sections from target yields relies on a Monte Carlo simulation, which considers scintillation light transport, photodisintegration processes in $^{4}mathrm{He}$, background photon interactions in target windows and interactions of the reaction-product particles in the gas and target container. The predictions of this simulation are compared to the measured target response.
The FragmentatiOn Of Target (FOOT) experiment aims to provide precise nuclear cross-section measurements for two different fields: hadrontherapy and radio-protection in space. The main reason is the important role the nuclear fragmentation process plays in both fields, where the health risks caused by radiation are very similar and mainly attributable to the fragmentation process. The FOOT experiment has been developed in such a way that the experimental setup is easily movable and fits the space limitations of the experimental and treatment rooms available in hadrontherapy treatment centers, where most of the data takings are carried out. The Trigger and Data Acquisition system needs to follow the same criteria and it should work in different laboratories and in different conditions. It has been designed to acquire the largest sample size with high accuracy in a controlled and online-monitored environment. The data collected are processed in real-time for quality assessment and are available to the DAQ crew and detector experts during data taking.
We present a conceptual design for a polarized $^3$He target for Jefferson Labs CLAS12 spectrometer in its standard configuration. This two-cell target will take advantage of advancements in optical pumping techniques at high magnetic field to create 60% longitudinally polarized $^3$He gas in a pumping cell inside the CLAS12 5 T solenoid. By transferring this gas to a 20 cm long, 5 K target cell, a target thickness of $3 times 10^{21}$ $^3$He/cm$^2$ will be produced, reaching the detectors specified maximum luminosity with a beam current of 2.5 $mu A$.