Apr 24 2024Reviewed by Lexie Corner
Boosted by the £3.4m FAUST project, funded by the UK Research and Innovation’s Science and Technology Facilities Council (UKRI-STFC), researchers from the University of Surrey will create detectors for the new GRETA gamma-ray array. This array is part of Michigan State University’s (MSU) $730 million Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) particle accelerator.
The researchers are developing detectors capable of stopping very high-energy particles in their tracks and measuring the rate at which reactions occur inside stars.
Slowing down particles that are moving close to the speed of light is certainly a challenge. But with our partners, we are confident in building equipment that is fit for the task. The findings could one day help us unlock the mysteries of how reactions at the heart of stars create the elements that make up everything on earth and across the galaxies. It is amazing to think that reactions involving tiny nuclei, invisible to the naked eye, determine how a star explodes.
Gavin Lotay, Professor, School of Mathematics and Physics, University of Surrey
Almost all chemical elements, including gold, oxygen, and iron, are generated by nuclear processes in stars. To learn more about where they originate from, scientists must first understand how these events occur.
Scientists will smash beams of high-speed rare isotopes into several plastic targets. By monitoring the newly formed light-charged particles (such as protons), they seek to learn about the origins of elements ranging from gold to oxygen and beyond.
The particles will be monitored using a mix of silicon detectors supplied by West Sussex-based Micron Semiconductor Ltd. and cesium iodide crystals manufactured by University of York researchers.
The UKRI-STFC Daresbury Laboratory in Cheshire will provide vital technical assistance.
We are excited to welcome FAUST and the associated research to FRIB. This international collaboration will answer fundamental questions about the evolution of the universe and the nature of the nuclear force–and we very much look forward to this partnership.
Dr. Alexandra Gade, Professor, Michigan State University
The device is scheduled to be finished in 2028. It is expected to run for at least ten years.
Source: http://www.surrey.ac.uk/