TRIUMF

"TRIUMF" is Canada’s national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics located on the University of British Columbia campus in Vancouver, British Columbia. The name, formerly abbreviated from TRI-University Meson Facility, is now no longer an appropriate acronym as TRIUMF is now owned and operated by a consortium of seven Canadian universities. TRIUMF houses the world's largest cyclotron, a particularly "luminous" source of 500 MeV protons. The consortium runs TRIUMF through a contribution of funds from the National Research Council of Canada, and makes TRIUMF’s facilities available to Canadian scientists and to scientists from around the world. Many Canadian university scientists collaborate in multi-institutional groups, which in turn collaborate with international groups to mount large-scale projects at TRIUMF and at national laboratories in Europe, the United States, and Japan. The current director of TRIUMF is Dr. Nigel Lockyer, who began his term on May 1, 2007.

Asteroid 14959 TRIUMF is named in honour of the laboratory.

Main Cyclotron

In operation since 1974, the main accelerator is currently the world's largest cyclotron accelerating H⁻ ions to up to energies of 520 MeV. The 18m diameter, 4000 tonne main magnet produces a field of .46 T while a 23 MHz 94 kV electric field is used to accelerate the 200 μA beam. Graphite foils are used to strip the electrons from the hydrogen beam allowing several proton beams to be extracted at different energies and directed to different beamlines at the same time.

Muon Experiments

500 MeV protons are used to produce large numbers of muons for solid state and chemistry experiments [http://musr.org/] . Muon spin resonance is used to probe the small scale magnetic structure of materials while muonium is used to study chemical reactions involving hydrogen. Muons are also used to test weak interaction symmetry in the TWIST experiment.

KAON Factory

In the 1980s the TRIUMF operators proposed expanding the facility with the addition of a proton synchrotron that would use the TRIUMF cyclotron as an injector, first to a 3 GeV "booster" and then to a unique "racetrack" 30 GeV storage ring. The resulting higher-energy device would be the "brightest" accelerator in the world, with about 100 times the particle flux of existing devices. [ [http://accelconf.web.cern.ch/AccelConf/p91/PDF/PAC1991_0057.PDF The TRIUMF KAON Factory] ] The project was finally shelved in the early 1990s.

Isotope Separation and ACceleration (ISAC)

The ISAC facility produces and uses heavy ion beams to produce short-lived isotopes for study. A proton beam from the main accelerator is used to produce beams of exotic isotopes which are further accelerated using linear accelerators. Several experiments study the properties and structure of these exotic isotopes along with their nucleosynthesis.

Experiments include
* β-NMR - Nuclear magnetic resonance using beta emission for studies in materials science. [http://bnmr.triumf.ca]
* 8PI - Studying nuclear structure via beta emission using an array of HPGe and optionally, either plastic or silicon detectors. [http://www.physics.uoguelph.ca/Nucweb/8pipics.htm]
* DRAGON - Studies of stellar nucleosynthesis in the conditions of nova and supernova using a recoil mass spectrometer. [http://dragon.triumf.ca]
* DSL - Doppler shift measurements of isotope lifetimes. [http://davids.triumf.ca/dsl.htm]
* HERACLES - Multi detector array previously used at Chalk River Laboratories and the Texas A&M cyclotron
* TITAN - Ion trap for nuclear and atomic studies [http://titan.triumf.ca]
* TRINAT - Neutral ion trap [http://www.triumf.ca/welcome/trinat.html]
* TUDA - A general purpose facility for studying nuclear reactions of astrophysical significance with solid state detectors. [http://tuda.triumf.ca]
* TACTIC - An ionization chamber with full track reconstruction capabilities for studying reactions of astrophysical importance. [http://tactic.triumf.ca]

The ISAC II expansion uses a superconducting linear accelerator to accelerate heavier isotopes to higher energies.

ISAC II experiments include
* EMMA - Heavier isotope recoil mass spectrometer [http://davids.triumf.ca/emma.htm]
* TIGRESS - Gamma ray spectrometer [http://tigress.triumf.ca]

Medical Physics and Isotope Production

TRIUMF is partnered with MDS Nordion to produce isotopes for use in medical imaging and diagnostics using proton beams from the main cyclotron and four smaller cyclotrons. Short lived isotopes are produced for use in PET at the UBC hospital. Radioactive tracers are also produced for use in a wide range of research including chemistry and biology. As well proton beams are used to treat ocular melanoma at TRIUMF.

External Programs

TRIUMF is also involved in the development and construction of detectors and equipment for larger particle physics experiments.

Large Hadron Collider

TRIUMF contributed to the construction of the ATLAS experiment detector by assembling the liquid argon end cap calorimeters for the ATLAS experiment part of Large Hadron Collider at CERN. As well TRIUMF was involved in the construction and procurement of several magnets and power supplies for the LHC itself.

Grid Computing

TRIUMF will be home to Canada's Tier One Data Centre for analysis of data from the ATLAS experiment. Petabytes of data will be stored and analyzed with the help of computers across Canada using grid computing. TRIUMF is connected to CERN by a 10 Gbit/s lightpath.

T2K

TRIUMF is part of the T2K (Tokai-to-Kamioka) neutrino oscillation experiment in Japan. TRIUMF is involved in constructing a time projection chamber and fine-grained detectors composed of plastic scintillators for the T2K "near detector", to measure the properties of the neutrino beam at its production site in Tokai before it travels 295 km to Kamioka, over which distance neutrino oscillations are expected to take place.

OPAL

TRIUMF scientists were involved with the OPAL experiment at the CERN LEP collider, which has now ended operations.

TRIUMF Users' Group (TUG)

The TRIUMF Users Group is an international community of scientists and engineers with a special interest in the use of the TRIUMF facility. Its purpose is:
* to provide a formal means for exchange of information relating to the development and use of the facility;
* to advise members of the entire TRIUMF organization of projects and facilities available;
* to provide an entity responsive to the representations of its members for offering advice and counsel to the TRIUMF management on operating policy and facilities.Any qualified scientist can join the users group. The group's interests are looked after by an elected committee (TUEC, TRIUMF Users' Executive Committee). Part of TUEC's responsibilities is to organize meetings on behalf of the membership were necessary. At least one meeting, the annual general meeting (AGM), is held each year near the beginning of December. A link to the TUG website is listed in the external links below.

See also

*Canadian government scientific research organizations
*Canadian university scientific research organizations
*Canadian industrial research and development organizations

References

External links

* [http://www.triumf.ca TRIUMF home page]
* [http://www.triumf.ca/tug TRIUMF Users' Group (TUG)]
* [http://www.triumf.info/wiki/exp-prog/index.php/Main_Page TRIUMF guide for regular and potential experimenters]