Progress Report 1980-1981. Department of Physics

The period covered by this report is outstanding because of the spectacular progress made in the construction of the TANDAB facility. In January 1980, the excavation work had just started; by December 1981 the column structure was standing in the interior of the 35m high pressure vessel and the injector was being readied at its definitive location 56m above ground. During 1980 there was a vigorous local drive to meet the schedule for the column installation as agreed with NEC. The main and service towers reached the top at 73m at a fast pace by using nonstop sliding forms. Previously the pressure tank had been finished and tested to a maximum 18 kg/cm2 pressure in record time. Shortly afterwards the two spherical storage vessels for the SF6 gas were completed. At present, most of the work is being geared to complete the gas handling system and start the high voltage tests. On the occasion of the Third International Conference on Electrostatic Accelerator Technology, we were awarded the distinction of being selected as hosts for the next conference in 1985. We hope that our accelerator will be well ahead in the running stage by then. It is also possible that the adjacent office building originally planned will also be ready for the conference. The training program which was initiated in 1977 with the purpose of supplementing adequately the research staff needed for an efficient use of the TANDAR is near completion now. This program has involved a dozen young physicists who have finished or are finishing their theses. Most of them have had the opportunity to get experience abroad. Now that the program is almost completed we can be very satisfied with the results. In this connection we wish to acknowledge the collaboration of those groups abroad which have been willing to host the young graduates in Oxford, Muenchen, Goettingen, Heidelberg, Stony Brook, Oak Ridge, Seattle, Berkeley and Rehovot. We keep high expectations on the returns of this program which should start paying off as soon as the first beam becomes usable. Another aspect of general character which is worth mentioning is that both in 1980 and 1981 the series of nuclear physics workshops, started in 1978, continued with an enlarged audience and distinguished speakers. B. Bayman, S. Bjornholm, D.Mc. Hyder, M. Macfarlane and F. Stephens contributed with excellent talks. Within the program for cooperative research managed by the Argentine National Research Council and the U.S. National Science Foundation successful projects were carried out in collaboration with groups of Brookhaven, Ames and Tucson. Other joint efforts were also undertaken with scientists from Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Santiago de Chile, Tilbingen, Washington D.C., Grenoble, Berkeley, Paris, Strasbourg and local universities in Buenos Aires, La Plata and Tandil. The research output constitutes the main topic of this report and is summarized in the following pages. In general, the activity as a whole has steadily grown in spite of the fact that secondary (but necessary) chores have also multiplied and makes us feel frequently distressed. Adaptation to the new responsibilities ahead is the key. The years of running the old Synchrocyclotron and Cockcroft-Walton accelerator are finished. We now have a very powerful machine becoming operational, which will make possible experiments which up to now were only dreams. It will be our responsibility to make them become reality. It is both a sweet feeling and a heavy burden at the same time, to face this responsibility.