Exotic Beam Summer School
From June 6 to 10, 2022 the Exotic Beam Summer School (EBSS) at Notre Dame hosted 40 graduate students from around the world. This 19th edition of the school, one of the most valued in the low-energy nuclear physics community, was the first after a three year hiatus due to the pandemic. Needless to say the students were excited to participate in the series of hands-on activities offered in the afternoon (a unique feature of the EBSS), the morning lectures, as well as the evening social activities.
The morning lectures at Jordan Hall of Science covered current research including nuclear astrophysics, reactions, structure, and fundamental symmetries, as well as other associated topics such as gravitational wave detection, nuclear data, neutrino physics, medical isotopes, and superheavy element research. The continued technical developments required to produce, separate, stop and detect exotic nuclei were also discussed. The afternoon activities featured the various capabilities of the Nuclear Science Laboratory of Notre Dame including radioactive ion beam production with the FN accelerator and TriSol, particle-induced gamma ray emission using beams from the St. Andre accelerator, an energy resonance scan using the St. Ana accelerator, novel actinide target making and testing techniques, gamma ray detection and the production of cooled ion bunches using a radio frequency quadrupole ion trap. Students also got to explore Compton scattering as well as performing state-of-the-art nucleosynthesis and R-matrix calculations, and experience the Digital Visualization Theater.
The EBSS series is sponsored by the US Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation and the following laboratories: Argonne National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) at Michigan State University, and the Association for Research at University Nuclear Accelerators (ARUNA). EBSS2022 was also sponsored by the University of Notre Dame’s Department of Physics and Astronomy and College of Science as well as the Institute for Structure and Nuclear AstroPhysics (ISNAP).
