Radioactive Beams for Image-Guided Particle Therapy: The BARB Experiment at GSI

Several techniques are under development for image-guidance in particle therapy. Positron (β+) emission tomography (PET) is in use since many years, because accelerated ions generate positron-emitting isotopes by nuclear fragmentation in the human body. In heavy ion therapy, a major part of the PET signals is produced by β+-emitters generated via projectile fragmentation. A much higher intensity for the PET signal can be obtained using β+-radioactive beams directly for treatment. This idea has always been hampered by the low intensity of the secondary beams, produced by fragmentation of the primary, stable beams. With the intensity upgrade of the SIS-18 synchrotron and the isotopic separation with the fragment separator FRS in the FAIR-phase-0 in Darmstadt, it is now possible to reach radioactive ion beams with sufficient intensity to treat a tumor in small animals. This was the motivation of the BARB (Biomedical Applications of Radioactive ion Beams) experiment that is ongoing at GSI in Darmstadt. This paper will present the plans and instruments developed by the BARB collaboration for testing the use of radioactive beams in cancer therapy.

Two-stage description of charge distributions in 56Fe+p spallation reactions at 0.3-1.5 GeV/A

Spallation reactions are studied in the framework of a two-stage model. The intra-nuclear cascade (INC) stage of the reaction is simulated with the code ISABEL and a Constrained Molecular Dynamics (CoMD) code. The de-excitation of the highly excited pre-fragments is described with the multi-sequential binary decay code MECO, based on a generalized Weisskopf-Ewing formalism. Emission of nucleons, gamma rays and IMFs in their ground, excited bound and unbound states is considered. Calculated cross sections are compared with the experimental charge distributions of 56Fe + p spallation reaction products studied at GSI with the fragment separator FRS in the energy-range 0.3 − 1.5 GeV/A. At all bombarding energies, a good description of the experimental data is obtained with ISABEL-MECO using a global set of parameters. A preliminary calculation with CoMD-MECO at 1GeV/A is discussed.

RF deflecting cavity for fast radioactive ion beams

The Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) will be a new scientific user facility that produces rare-isotope beams for experiments from the fragmentation of heavy ions at energies of 100–200 MeV/u. During the projectile fragmentation, the rare isotope of interest is produced along with many contaminants that need to be removed before the beam reaches detectors. At FRIB, this is accomplished with a magnetic projectile fragment separator. However, to achieve higher beam purity, in particular for proton-rich rare isotopes, additional purification is necessary. RadiaBeam in collaboration with Michigan State University (MSU) has designed a 20.125 MHz radiofrequency (RF) fragment separator capable of producing a 4 MV kick with 18 cm aperture in order to remove contaminant isotopes based on their time of flight. In this paper, we will discuss the RF and engineering design considerations of this separator cavity.

Separador de fragmentos (F.R.S.) como herramienta para el análisis de reacciones nucleares a FAIR (FAcility for Antiproton and Ion Research in Europe)

Everyday science has had to resort to the construction of large facilities and instruments to carry out experiments that allow obtaining information so that it can be analyzed later. In nuclear physics, the creation of new facilities has been growing enormously since to study this area of physics it has been necessary to build accelerators, magnetic spectrometers and detectors in order to obtain experimental information of events on a microscopic scale. This article reviews the design and construction process of the SUPER-FRS (Super-Fragment Separator) magnetic high resolution spectrometer resulting from a great collaboration called FAIR in (Darmstadt) Germany in the GSI facilities with the In order to know the scientific motivation that led to build it, its technical design and work that has been done on it.