- Rare Isotope Accelerator
The Rare Isotope Accelerator, or RIA, is a proposed
particle accelerator meant to produce and study short-lived nuclearisotope s. In addition to studying the properties of nuclei with extremeneutron -to-proton ratios, the hope is that RIA will provide a better understanding of the formation of heavy elements in extreme astrophysical environments like the outer layers of an explodingsupernova .Similar research is currently being done at the Isotope Separation and ACceleration (ISAC) experiment at
Canada 'sTRIUMF laboratory. Compared to ISAC, RIA would have a higher primary-beam power (which would provide higher intensities) and a more flexible combination of ion sources (which would provide a wider variety of rare isotopes to study).In 2006, RIA was put on hold by the
United States Department of Energy , in order to focus its budget on existing accelerator projects. [http://www.aip.org/fyi/2006/041.html]External links
* [http://www.nscl.msu.edu/ria/ RIA web page] at
Michigan State University
* [http://www.phy.anl.gov/ria/ RIA web page] atArgonne National Laboratory
* Video tour [http://research.uchicago.edu/highlights/item.php?id=12 The Science of RIA: ATLAS, Hulk and Brute Force Physics] atArgonne National Laboratory
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