Preface |
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The Forschungszentrum Rossendorf (FZR) at Dresden is a research centre devoted to
investigations using radiation and radioactivity in bio-medical, environmental, material, safety
and nuclear science; it belongs to the Wissenschaftsgemeinschaft G. W. Leibniz (WGL), one
of the German national institutions responsible for extra-university research. Among the five
institutes of the FZR the Institute of Nuclear and Hadron Physics (IKH) is special in the sense
that it is equally engaged in fundamental research on subatomic systems as well as in the
transfer of knowledge to other fields of science. It especially investigates and exploits the
possibilities for introducing experimental and theoretical techniques from particle and nuclear
physics to the life sciences.
The most remarkable example of such technology transfer is the strong involvement of the
institute in the work on the Radiation Source ELBE at the FZR. This instrument is centered
around a superconducting electron linac; thus nuclear physicists can well contribute with their
experience gained at accelerators outside of Rossendorf. From the projected electron beam
of 1 mA at up to 40 MeV intensive secondary radiation shall be produced: for the medium and
far infrared (IR) the free electron laser (FEL) principle will be used, whereas keV-X-rays can
be produced via electron channeling or Compton backscattering. Bremsstrahlung photons in
the MeV range are a very interesting probe for investigations in nuclear spectroscopy and
astrophysics; they also allow the generation of fast neutrons in short bunches, which are of
special interest for cross section measurements using time-of-flight techniques.
The first chapter of this Report describes the progress made in the completion of ELBE. It
contains contributions from various FZR-groups as well as the institute's work on components
of ELBE, especially on the production stations for the different kinds of secondary radiation
and on the experimental equipment to be installed for their use. The conceptual and
theoretical design studies for the IR-FEL and the detailed work on the magnetic undulators
constitute a very important contribution to the FEL aspect of ELBE, which very likely will be
especially attractive to outside users. Similarly, the numerical simulations performed for the
optimization of the X-ray and the MeV-photon production stations and the experimental areas
indicate that in both fields ELBE is apt to allow experiments with reduced background conditions.
Hadron Physics at the IKH - as described in the second chapter - is deals with hadronic
interactions as such and also within the hadronic medium formed in collisions between nuclei
or in violent astrophysical events like supernovae. Experiments related to such questions
were performed at the proton cooler synchrotron COSY at the Forschungszentrum Jülich and
at the heavy-ion synchrotron SIS at GSI Darmstadt. Theoretical studies refer to these
experiments and to data obtained at higher energy accelerators, where a phase transition to
a quark gluon plasma has been predicted to occur.
The third chapter combines experimental and theoretical research in Nuclear Physics. Here
the work mainly deals with electromagnetic processes in nuclei, with special emphasis on
those triggered by impinging bremsstrahlung photons. Special attention is given to studies of
collective excitations of nuclei as well as their interplay to single nucleon degrees of freedom.
The secondary ELBE beams also may play an important role in the simulation of processes
occurring during the stellar synthesis of the elements and they are of interest as the source of
exotic nuclei whose spectroscopic properties shall be studied; here photon or neutron induced
fission will be applied. Neutrons in the MeV range can also be used for determining cross
sections of importance for the selection of materials for fusion reactors as well as for new
nuclear technologies like waste transmutation or accelerator driven fission and spallation.
Last but not least this Annual Report contains a chapter on Biomedical Research performed
by using nuclear technology. In the past the main contribution of the institute to this field came
from Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and the outstanding achievement here is the
successful operation of a PET scanner simultaneously to the irradiation of tumors with heavy
ion beams. A significant number of patients was treated at GSI in the last years and the
reliability and reproducibility of such radiation therapy had been improved considerably by
in-situ PET, as developed at the institute.
In the upcoming years biomedical research will be performed increasingly with the beams
coming from ELBE: The quasi-monochromatic X-rays of easily variable energy as produced
in electron channeling will be used as a probe for the elementary processes responsible for
radiation damage in tissue. For a corresponding experimental study a cell laboratory is
installed at ELBE, which will also be used for investigating the interactions of cells with the
tunable FEL-radiation in the infrared as available at ELBE as well. Interesting research in
biophysics and biochemistry will become possible; here the rather low damage of IR
combined with its potential sensitivity to selected bio-molecular bonds may play an increasing
role.
The scientific activities of the institute have benefitted from generous support from various
sources. First of all, we gratefully acknowledge the close and fruitful collaboration with the
colleagues from the Technical University (TU) Dresden and many other scientific institutions
in Germany and abroad; such contacts are of vital importance for our institute. Specific
projects were subsidized by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF), the
Saxon State Ministry for Science and Art (SMWK), Forschungszentrum Jülich and GSI
Darmstadt. We express our gratitude to all these as well as to the Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and to the European Union (EU) for agreeing to support
several ELBE research projects initiated by the institute.
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