GSI (Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung) is an accelerator facility for heavy ion beams at Darmstadt, close to Frankfurt in Germany. The research program constitutes a broad spectrum ranging from nuclear physics and plasma physics to material science. Some of the best known results are the discovery of 6 new chemical elements with atomic numbers from 107 to 112 and the development of a new tumor therapy using ion beams.

A new international accelerator facility, FAIR, for research with stable, radioactive and antiproton beams is now being built at GSI. FAIR stands for Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research.

The accelerators and beam lines of the new FAIR facility (in red), beside the present GSI (in blue).
The accelerators and beam lines of the new FAIR facility (in red), beside the present GSI (in blue).
 

The heart of the new facility is a superconducting synchrotron double ring facility with a circumference of about 1,100 meters. A system of cooler-storage rings for effective beam cooling at high energies and various experimental halls will be connected to the facility. Produced secondary beams of antiprotons and radioactive nuclei will have very high intensities and very good quality.

 

Panda view from above of the new facility (old layout).
View from above of the new facility (old layout).
 

The nuclear physics programme at FAIR aims at the exploration of three fields. Using radioactive beams, nuclear structure for nuclei close to the limit of existence will be investigated (the NUSTAR programme). With stable beams of relativistic energies, nuclear matter at extreme conditions of high temperature and high density will be studied in the search for the state where quarks and gluons are no longer confined (the CBM programme).

At the high-energy antiproton storage ring, HESR, with its detector PANDA the structure and interactions of strongly interacting particles, hadrons, will be explored (the PANDA programme).

The PANDA experiment
The PANDA experiment


PANDA focusses on detailed studies of the strong interaction. The programme comprises detailed investigations of mesonic-like states in the charmonium mass region, including searches for states consisting of gluons alone (“glueballs). The PANDA detector system is designed for experiments at the internal target of the high-energy antiproton storage ring HESR, allowing for the complete detection and identification particles produced in the interaction (annihilations) between high-energy antiprotons and nucleons or nuclei of a fixed target.

The PANDA collaboration consists of 450 researchers from 17 countries.

The members of the instrumentation physics division at Stockholm University are, in collaboration with the PANDA group at Uppsala University, responsible for characterizing and improving the energy resolution of the electromagnetic calorimeter (EMC) and for investigations of the radiation-induced effects in the read-out electronics. A long line of experiments have been done at the tagged-photon facility at MAX-Lab in Lund, at the neutron facility at The Svedberg Laboratory in Uppsala, at KVI in Groningen and also in house.

According to the time schedule the FAIR facility will start operating around 2025. Parts of the PANDA detector will be assembled and tested at other laboratories in advance.

For additional information please contact Per-Erik Tegnér

Personell from the Division for Instrumentation Physics in the PANDA project:

Per-Erik Tegnér (group leader)
Dirk Wölbing (PhD student)
Markus Preston (PhD student)