RIKEN Nishina Center, Wako
Medium-energy high-intensity heavy-ion beams have been used for more than twenty years as powerful tools to investigate physics of unstable nuclei far from stability, in which one of the major problems is to understand the element genesis in universe. Many facilities including CERN, GANIL, GSI, MSU and RIKEN have developed their facilities to obtain much higher-intensity unstable-nuclei beams. Within these facilities, RIKEN first finished construction and commissioning of a major upgrade plan of the existing facility, RI Beam Factory, three years ago, in which the world-first superconducting ring cyclotron is pushing the limit of energy for heavy-ion cyclotrons. On the other hand, the FAIR and the FRIB project chose different strategies to obtain high-intensity heavy-ion beams, the former uses synchrotron and the latter uses superconducting linacs. The present competition with three different approaches is interesting because it will make clear that which kind of accelerator complex is most effective for medium-energy heavy-ion facilities. In this talk, we will present the achievements and future of RIBF under the comparison with other powerful competitors.
Naples University Federico II and INFN, Napoli
NRT, Aprilia
INFN/LNS, Catania
Universita' degli Studi di Milano & INFN, Segrate
INFN/LASA, Segrate (MI)
ADAM, Geneva
INFN-Napoli, Napoli
Bari University, Science Faculty, Bari
INFN-Bari, Bari
ACLIP is a 3 GHz proton SCL linac designed as a booster for a 30 MeV commercial cyclotron. The whole accelerator is a 5 module structure coupled together. The final energy is 62 MeV well suitable for the therapy of ocular tumors. In order to treat deep-seated tumors the energy can be raised up to 230 MeV by adding a second linac. The possibility of using magnetrons, as the source of RF power, to reduce the overall cost of the machine, and the tile design (covered by a patent), named Back-to-Back Accelerating Cavity (BBAC), to efficiently accelerate protons starting from a low energy are two of the more relevant features of this project. The first module (from 30 to 35 MeV) has been full power RF tested in December 2008, showing that the design accelerating field could be easily reached. Then this module, along with all elements of the RF power setup, has been transferred to INFN-LNS in Catania at the end of April 2010 to carry out beam acceleration tests using a 30 MeV proton beam from the Superconducting Cyclotron. In this paper we will review the main features of the linac and discuss the results of the acceleration measurements carried out on this prototype.