AGATA Interim Funding
Lead Research Organisation:
UNIVERSITY OF YORK
Department Name: Physics
Abstract
See Submission ST/T000546/1: AGATA: Precision Spectroscopy of Exotic Nuclei
Planned Impact
See Submission ST/T000546/1: AGATA: Precision Spectroscopy of Exotic Nuclei
Organisations
- UNIVERSITY OF YORK (Lead Research Organisation)
- University of Surrey (Collaboration)
- University of Brighton (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM (Collaboration)
- University of Liverpool (Collaboration)
- Daresbury Laboratory (Collaboration)
- University of the West of Scotland (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER (Collaboration)
People |
ORCID iD |
| Michael Bentley (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Avigo R
(2020)
Low-lying electric dipole ?-continuum for the unstable 62,64Fe nuclei: Strength evolution with neutron number
in Physics Letters B
Ballan M
(2023)
Nuclear physics midterm plan at Legnaro National Laboratories (LNL)
in The European Physical Journal Plus
Bentley M
(2023)
Agata: in-beam spectroscopy with relativistic beams
in The European Physical Journal A
Boso A
(2019)
Isospin dependence of electromagnetic transition strengths among an isobaric triplet
in Physics Letters B
Bracco A
(2023)
Preface of AGATA: advancements in science and technology
in The European Physical Journal A
Cederwall B
(2020)
Isospin Properties of Nuclear Pair Correlations from the Level Structure of the Self-Conjugate Nucleus ^{88}Ru.
in Physical review letters
Chen S
(2025)
Development of the self-calibration technique for $$\gamma $$-ray energy tracking arrays
in The European Physical Journal A
Ciemala M
(2020)
Testing ab initio nuclear structure in neutron-rich nuclei: Lifetime measurements of second 2 + state in C 16 and O 20
in Physical Review C
Clément E
(2023)
Organisation of the AGATA collaboration and physics campaigns
in The European Physical Journal A
Clément E
(2023)
Spectroscopic quadrupole moments in Xe 124
in Physical Review C
| Description | The objective of this project was for the UK to contribute at the highest level to the current and planned phases of one of the world's premier gamma-ray spectrometers called AGATA. In this project new AGATA equipment was acquired, including the sophisticated detectors (which enables the UK to meet its obligations to the collaboration), and utilise the UK's leading technical and scientific capabilities to characterise the system and prepare it towards new science opportunities provided by new accelerator facilities. |
| Exploitation Route | The immediate beneficiaries are experimental nuclear physicist interested to study nuclear properties at the extremes. The technology employed in this array includes state-of-the-art high-purity Germanium crystals, the world's most effective detection method to measure gamma-ray radiation with ultra-high precision. The readout of electronic signals involves latest-technology signal processing methods and the vast amount of high quality data serve for development of new algorithms including neural networks. Ultimately, the instrument enables gamma-ray tracking, i.e. it allows to follow the trajectory of gamma-rays as they scatter in the medium and extract from this additional information such as its emission point. These gamma-ray tracking methods find applications in nuclear security and medical imaging. |
| Sectors | Aerospace Defence and Marine Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) |
| URL | https://www.technology.stfc.ac.uk/Pages/Project-Showcase/AGATA-The-Advanced-Gamma-Tracking-Array.aspx |
| Description | AGATA: Precision Spectroscopy of Exotic Nuclei |
| Amount | £1,135,090 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | ST/T000546/1 |
| Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2020 |
| End | 03/2024 |
| Description | UK AGATA Collaboration |
| Organisation | Daresbury Laboratory |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Bentley is leading the UK AGATA STFC-funded project. Part of the AGATA project is the preparation of the AGATA phase at FAIR, part of HISPEC. This was one of the three major components of the UK NUSTAR project. Bentley has co-ordinated the collaboration, including the scientific and technical direction of the FAIR part of the AGATA project. The project will contribute to the mechanics, electronics, pulse-shape analysis and simulations for AGATA as part of the NUSTAR project. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Partners are contributing science direction, and technical expertise to the project. The project will contribute to the mechanical design and construction, electronics and data acquisition, pulse-shape analysis and physics simulations for AGATA as part of the NUSTAR project. |
| Impact | Full grant award from STFC 2019-2024 |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | UK AGATA Collaboration |
| Organisation | University of Liverpool |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Bentley is leading the UK AGATA STFC-funded project. Part of the AGATA project is the preparation of the AGATA phase at FAIR, part of HISPEC. This was one of the three major components of the UK NUSTAR project. Bentley has co-ordinated the collaboration, including the scientific and technical direction of the FAIR part of the AGATA project. The project will contribute to the mechanics, electronics, pulse-shape analysis and simulations for AGATA as part of the NUSTAR project. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Partners are contributing science direction, and technical expertise to the project. The project will contribute to the mechanical design and construction, electronics and data acquisition, pulse-shape analysis and physics simulations for AGATA as part of the NUSTAR project. |
| Impact | Full grant award from STFC 2019-2024 |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | UK AGATA Collaboration |
| Organisation | University of the West of Scotland |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Bentley is leading the UK AGATA STFC-funded project. Part of the AGATA project is the preparation of the AGATA phase at FAIR, part of HISPEC. This was one of the three major components of the UK NUSTAR project. Bentley has co-ordinated the collaboration, including the scientific and technical direction of the FAIR part of the AGATA project. The project will contribute to the mechanics, electronics, pulse-shape analysis and simulations for AGATA as part of the NUSTAR project. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Partners are contributing science direction, and technical expertise to the project. The project will contribute to the mechanical design and construction, electronics and data acquisition, pulse-shape analysis and physics simulations for AGATA as part of the NUSTAR project. |
| Impact | Full grant award from STFC 2019-2024 |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | UK-NUSTAR |
| Organisation | Daresbury Laboratory |
| Department | Nuclear Physics Support Group |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We all work towards constructing and exploiting equipment for NUSTAR at the FAIR facility in Darmstadt, Germany. Yorks contribution has been to construct and test the LYCCA device, including time-of-flight detectors, state of the art ASIC-based electronics systems and associated mechanical and electronic engineering. |
| Collaborator Contribution | We all work towards constructing and exploiting equipment for NUSTAR at the FAIR facility in Darmstadt, Germany. |
| Impact | Construction of equipment for NUSTAR |
| Start Year | 2009 |
| Description | UK-NUSTAR |
| Organisation | University of Birmingham |
| Department | School of Physics and Astronomy |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We all work towards constructing and exploiting equipment for NUSTAR at the FAIR facility in Darmstadt, Germany. Yorks contribution has been to construct and test the LYCCA device, including time-of-flight detectors, state of the art ASIC-based electronics systems and associated mechanical and electronic engineering. |
| Collaborator Contribution | We all work towards constructing and exploiting equipment for NUSTAR at the FAIR facility in Darmstadt, Germany. |
| Impact | Construction of equipment for NUSTAR |
| Start Year | 2009 |
| Description | UK-NUSTAR |
| Organisation | University of Brighton |
| Department | Physics |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We all work towards constructing and exploiting equipment for NUSTAR at the FAIR facility in Darmstadt, Germany. Yorks contribution has been to construct and test the LYCCA device, including time-of-flight detectors, state of the art ASIC-based electronics systems and associated mechanical and electronic engineering. |
| Collaborator Contribution | We all work towards constructing and exploiting equipment for NUSTAR at the FAIR facility in Darmstadt, Germany. |
| Impact | Construction of equipment for NUSTAR |
| Start Year | 2009 |
| Description | UK-NUSTAR |
| Organisation | University of Edinburgh |
| Department | School of Physics and Astronomy |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We all work towards constructing and exploiting equipment for NUSTAR at the FAIR facility in Darmstadt, Germany. Yorks contribution has been to construct and test the LYCCA device, including time-of-flight detectors, state of the art ASIC-based electronics systems and associated mechanical and electronic engineering. |
| Collaborator Contribution | We all work towards constructing and exploiting equipment for NUSTAR at the FAIR facility in Darmstadt, Germany. |
| Impact | Construction of equipment for NUSTAR |
| Start Year | 2009 |
| Description | UK-NUSTAR |
| Organisation | University of Liverpool |
| Department | Department of Physics |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We all work towards constructing and exploiting equipment for NUSTAR at the FAIR facility in Darmstadt, Germany. Yorks contribution has been to construct and test the LYCCA device, including time-of-flight detectors, state of the art ASIC-based electronics systems and associated mechanical and electronic engineering. |
| Collaborator Contribution | We all work towards constructing and exploiting equipment for NUSTAR at the FAIR facility in Darmstadt, Germany. |
| Impact | Construction of equipment for NUSTAR |
| Start Year | 2009 |
| Description | UK-NUSTAR |
| Organisation | University of Manchester |
| Department | Physics |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We all work towards constructing and exploiting equipment for NUSTAR at the FAIR facility in Darmstadt, Germany. Yorks contribution has been to construct and test the LYCCA device, including time-of-flight detectors, state of the art ASIC-based electronics systems and associated mechanical and electronic engineering. |
| Collaborator Contribution | We all work towards constructing and exploiting equipment for NUSTAR at the FAIR facility in Darmstadt, Germany. |
| Impact | Construction of equipment for NUSTAR |
| Start Year | 2009 |
| Description | UK-NUSTAR |
| Organisation | University of Surrey |
| Department | Physics |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We all work towards constructing and exploiting equipment for NUSTAR at the FAIR facility in Darmstadt, Germany. Yorks contribution has been to construct and test the LYCCA device, including time-of-flight detectors, state of the art ASIC-based electronics systems and associated mechanical and electronic engineering. |
| Collaborator Contribution | We all work towards constructing and exploiting equipment for NUSTAR at the FAIR facility in Darmstadt, Germany. |
| Impact | Construction of equipment for NUSTAR |
| Start Year | 2009 |
| Description | UK-NUSTAR |
| Organisation | University of the West of Scotland |
| Department | physics |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We all work towards constructing and exploiting equipment for NUSTAR at the FAIR facility in Darmstadt, Germany. Yorks contribution has been to construct and test the LYCCA device, including time-of-flight detectors, state of the art ASIC-based electronics systems and associated mechanical and electronic engineering. |
| Collaborator Contribution | We all work towards constructing and exploiting equipment for NUSTAR at the FAIR facility in Darmstadt, Germany. |
| Impact | Construction of equipment for NUSTAR |
| Start Year | 2009 |
| Description | Harwell Open day 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The activity setup consisted of a 360 degree ring populated with small cameras every 10 degrees. Each camera is controlled by Raspberry PIs and a software which allows all cameras to take a picture simultaneously of the subject placed in the center of the ring. The result is a 360 degrees picture of the subject. This activity illustrate the radiation ( in this case, light reflected by the subject) being captured simultaneously by detectors ( in this case, simple cameras). In Nuclear physics experiments, the radiation would be gamma-rays, neutrons, or ions and the detector would be an array of detectors such as: AGATA, SIGMA or HYPATIA for gamma rays and FAUST, ePIC-MAPS or R3B silicon trackers for light charged particles. A poster illustrating nuclear physics experiment with AGATA, HYPATIA, FAUST, ePICs and R3B detector were presented along side of this activity, while members of the public waited their turn to have a 360 degree picture taken. The activity also show case the expertise of required in STFC Technology department in term of mechanical, electronics and software engineering to build and operates all these detector systems. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.technology.stfc.ac.uk/Pages/News-Conferences-and-Publications/Conferences-Visits-and-Eve... |
| Description | STFC Open week at Daresbury Laboratory |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The Open week included a school day and a public day. For the school day the students were introduced to gamma-ray radiation detection systems (NaI scintillators and High purity Ge crystals) and were given the task to place layers of shielding material (lead) between the source and the detector, count the number of gamma-rays detected with the full energy and to determine the attenuation coefficient. During the public day, several activities were presented to the public, including a simplified version of the school activity mentioned above, the demonstration of cosmic muon detection, a generic description of radiation abd detector system using infra-red camera, and a fun 360 degrees timeslice camera mimicking a radiation detection system surrounding a target as in a typical nuclear physics research experiment (ex: experiments with the Advanced GAmma Tracking Array AGATA) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.ukri.org/news/daresbury-laboratory-opens-its-doors-to-the-public/ |