Department of Interdisciplinary Applications of Physics - Overview

The activities of the Department in 2005 were focused on the following areas of application of physics: · homeland security: - development of new methods of prevention of trafficking of nuclear materials; · medical physics: - calibration method of the therapeutical X-ray generator (Photon Needle) was developed; - the Photon Needle went into clinical tests; - a new method of production of 18F was studied using our proton cyclotron; · environmental physics: - on the request of the local authorities, we started measurements of the concentration of PM10 dust in the air in Otwock and Karczew; - the results helped the local authorities to identify the principle sources of pollution and take corrective actions; - our pollution prediction algorithm (following the EU Directive 96/62/EC) was validated; - monitoring of the radionuclides concentration in soil and air was continued. Basic research was continued in the fields of: · elementary particle physics: - participation in the experiment at FZ-Juelich and the discovery of the new baryonic resonance in pp; - participation in the preparation of the ICARUS experiment to study neutrino physics; - study of new methods of the search for a Majorana neutrino; - participation in the experiments at PSI Villingen devoted to the precision measurements of the decay properties of a pion; - study of the ionization properties of low energy electrons (200-1000 eV) with the unique 'Jet Counter' facility; - study of Parallel Plate Avalanche Counters; · nuclear physics: - modeling of the fusion of super-heavy nuclei; - participation in the CHIMERA experiment at LNS Catania studying the low and middle energy nucleus-nucleus collisions, observation of one- and two-body dissipation processes; - modeling of the proton induced spallation processes; - nuclear spectroscopy; · high energy atomic physics: - study of the properties of atoms ionized by the energetic ion beams in the experiments at GSI-Darmstadt and RCNP-Osaka. We collaborate with the Polish Border Guard, Polish Customs, CEA Saclay, KTH Stockholm, Collegium Medicum of the Jagiellonian Univ., CERMET and Cracow Technical Univ., Cardiology and Oncology Institutes in Warsaw, Radioisotope Center POLATOM, local authorities in Karczew and Otwock, AIRCLIM Network, Warsaw Central Laboratory for Radiological Protection, Institutes of Physics, Geophysics, Mineral and Energy Economy Research of Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Phys. Warsaw Univ, ARMAAG Foundation in Gdansk, Regional Inspectors for Environment Protection in Gdansk and Warsaw, FZ-Juelich, INFN, PSI Villingen, Interdisciplinary Center for Mathematical and Computational Modeling of Warsaw Univ., LNS Catania, Univ. of Wirginia, COST P9, GSF Munich, PTB Braunchweig, LNL Legarno, NASA, LBNL Berkeley, JINR Dubna, Heavy Ion Laboratory of Warsaw Univ., Notre Dame Univ., ANL Argonne, ISV Studsvik, CERN, GSI-Darmstadt RCNP-Osaka, Swietokrzyska Academy Kielce and also Departments and Organizational Units of our Institute. (author)