E3S Web of Conferences 163, 00004 (2017)
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/201716300004

The Active Target Time Projection Chamber at NSCL

¹ National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824-1321, USA
² Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824-1321, USA
³ Department of Applied Nuclear Physics, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
⁴ Department of Physics, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA
⁵ Department of Physics, Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA 99258, USA
⁶ Department of Chemistry, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824-1321, USA

^* e-mail: bazin@nscl.msu.edu

Published online: 22 November 2017

Abstract

Reactions in inverse kinematics close to the Coulomb barrier offer unique opportunities to study exotic nuclei, but they are plagued by the difficulty to efficiently and precisely measure the characteristics of the emerging particles. The Active Target Time Projection Chamber (AT-TPC) offers an elegant solution to this dilemma. In this device, the detector gas of the time projection chamber is at the same time the target in which nuclear reactions take place. The use of this new paradigm offers several advantages over conventional inert target methods, the most significant being the ability to increase the luminosity of experiments without loss of resolution. The AT-TPC and some results obtained on resonant α scattering to explore the clustering properties of neutron-rich nuclei are presented, as well as fusion cross section results using a ¹⁰Be radioactive beam. In addition, the first re-accelerated radioactive beam experiment using the fully commissioned ReA3 linac was conducted recently at the NSCL with the AT-TPC, where proton resonant scattering of a 4.6 MeV/u ⁴⁶Ar beam was used to measure the neutron single-particle strength in ⁴⁷Ar.