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NeuLAND (New Large-Area Neutron Detector) is the next-generation neutron detector for the R3B (Reactions with Relativistic Radioactive Beams) experiment at FAIR (Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research). NeuLAND detects neutrons with energies from 100 to 1000 MeV, featuring a high detection efficiency, a high spatial and time resolution, and a large multi-neutron reconstruction efficiency. This is achieved by a highly granular design of organic scintillators: 3000 individual submodules with a size of 5 × 5 × 250 cm3 are arranged in 30 double planes with 100 submodules each, providing an active area of 250 × 250 cm2 and a total depth of 3 m. The spatial resolution due to the granularity together with a time resolution of 150 ps ensures high-resolution capabilities. In conjunction with calorimetric properties, a multi-neutron reconstruction efficiency of 50% to 70% for four-neutron events will be achieved, depending on both the emission scenario and the boundary conditions allowed for the reconstruction method. We present in this paper the final design of the detector as well as results from test measurements and simulations on which this design is based.
The nucleosynthesis of elements beyond iron is dominated by neutron captures in the s and r processes. However, 32 stable, proton-rich isotopes cannot be formed during those processes, because they are shielded from the s-process flow and r-process β-decay chains. These nuclei are attributed to the p and rp process.
For all those processes, current research in nuclear astrophysics addresses the need for more precise reaction data involving radioactive isotopes. Depending on the particular reaction, direct or inverse kinematics, forward or time-reversed direction are investigated to determine or at least to constrain the desired reaction cross sections.
The Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) will offer unique, unprecedented opportunities to investigate many of the important reactions. The high yield of radioactive isotopes, even far away from the valley of stability, allows the investigation of isotopes involved in processes as exotic as the r or rp processes.
We measured the Coulomb dissociation of 16O into 4He and 12C at the R3B setup in a first campaign within FAIR Phase 0 at GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, Darmstadt. The goal was to improve the accuracy of the experimental data for the 12C(α,γ)16O fusion reaction and to reach lower center-ofmass energies than measured so far.
The experiment required beam intensities of 109 16O ions per second at an energy of 500 MeV/nucleon. The rare case of Coulomb breakup into 12C and 4He posed another challenge: The magnetic rigidities of the particles are so close because of the same mass-to-charge-number ratio A/Z = 2 for 16O, 12C and 4He. Hence, radical changes of the R3B setup were necessary. All detectors had slits to allow the passage of the unreacted 16O ions, while 4He and 12C would hit the detectors' active areas depending on the scattering angle and their relative energies. We developed and built detectors based on organic scintillators to track and identify the reaction products with sufficient precision.