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The new Spiral facility
at the GANIL heavy ion accelerator in Caen was inaugurated today by Roger-Gérard
Schwartzenberg, French Minister of Research, René Garrec, President
of the Lower Normandy Regional Council, Geneviève Berger, Director-General
of the CNRS, and Pascal Colombani, Administrator General of the French
Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). With Spiral, the GANIL, a jointly managed
CEA-CNRS laboratory, now offers the scientific community an exceptional
research tool that is unique in Europe for the study of atomic nuclear
physics. The facility bolsters France's leading international position
in this field.
The Spiral facility enables
scientists to produce and accelerate light and moderately heavy nuclei,
known as exotic nuclei, that do not exist on Earth. The study of these
exotic nuclei, which represent approximately 90% of the nuclei in the
cosmos, is thus essential in a number of areas in nuclear physics, as
well as for astrophysics, especially in order to understand the formation
of atomic nuclei in stars and supernovas. Since exotic nuclei represent
a vast terra incognita today, this type of research will undoubtedly enable
scientists to discover new nuclear phenomena.
Although physicists were already able to synthesize exotic nuclei in the
laboratory, the Spiral facility will make it possible, for the first time,
to produce large quantities of exotic nuclei, accelerate them, and observe
their collisions with other nuclei, thereby providing information about
their structure. Compared to other existing facilities, Spiral furthermore
considerably extends both the range of exotic elements produced and the
domain of accessible energy.
In September 2001, Spiral produced its first beam of an exotic nuclei:
Neon 18. Through the observation of the collisions of this beam with a
solid hydrogen target, Spiral revealed the structure of Sodium 19, a nucleus
that cannot be found on Earth, in particular to understand certain thermonuclear
reactions by which the elements in the Universe are created. Twelve laboratories
collaborated to conduct this first experiment, including five European,
one American, and six French laboratories.
Construction of the SPIRAL facility required a total investment of 18
million Euros. The CEA, the CNRS, and the Lower Normandy Regional Council
contributed in equal amounts to fund the project.
Ganil, which first began operating in 1983 in Caen, France, was recognized
as a European Large Facility in 1995. Some 250 physicists, engineers,
and technicians work at Ganil, whose principal mission is to provide the
scientific community with the means to conduct basic research in nuclear
physics. The experiments carried out at Ganil have made an important contribution
to increasing our understanding of nuclei. Considerable progress in this
field is expected thanks to SPIRAL, a facility that is unique in Europe.
CEA Press contact
:
Corinne Borel
Tel : +33 1 40 56 18 35
e-mail : corinne.borel@cea.fr
CNRS Press
contact :
Stéphanie Bia
Tel : +33 1 44 96 43 09
e-mail : stephanie.bia@cnrs-dir.fr
Ministry of Research Press contact :
Muriel Elghouzzi
Tel : +33 1 55 55 83 28
e-mail : muriel.elghouzzi@recherche.gouv.fr
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