Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory
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The Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory, abbreviated as TUNL (pronounced as "tunnel"), is a tripartite research consortium operated by
Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist Jam ...
, the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United State ...
,
North Carolina State University North Carolina State University (NC State) is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina. Founded in 1887 and part of the University of North Carolina system, it is the largest university in the Carolinas. The univers ...
and
North Carolina Central University North Carolina Central University (NCCU or NC Central) is a public historically black university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by James E. Shepard in affiliation with the Chautauqua movement in 1909, it was supported by private funds fro ...
. The laboratory is located on the West Campus of Duke University in
Durham, North Carolina Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County and Wake County. With a population of 283,506 in the 2020 Census, Durham is the 4th- ...
. Researchers are now drawn from several other universities around the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
in addition to members from the founding universities. TUNL also participates in long term collaborations with universities and laboratories around the world. Funding for TUNL comes primarily from the United States Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Physics. TUNL operates three laboratory facilities, all of which reside on Duke University's campus. Two of the facilities, the Tandem Accelerator Laboratory and the Laboratory for Experimental Nuclear Astrophysics, are low energy charged beam accelerators. The third facility is the High Intensity Gamma-Ray Source (HIGS), which produces the highest intensity polarized
Gamma ray A gamma ray, also known as gamma radiation (symbol γ or \gamma), is a penetrating form of electromagnetic radiation arising from the radioactive decay of atomic nuclei. It consists of the shortest wavelength electromagnetic waves, typically ...
beams in the world. TUNL is also involved in off-site research projects, including the Majorana Demonstrator Experiment, an ongoing
Double beta decay In nuclear physics, double beta decay is a type of radioactive decay in which two neutrons are simultaneously transformed into two protons, or vice versa, inside an atomic nucleus. As in single beta decay, this process allows the atom to move clos ...
experiment at the
Sanford Underground Research Facility The Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF), or Sanford Lab, is an underground laboratory in Lead, South Dakota. The deepest underground laboratory in the United States, it houses multiple experiments in areas such as dark matter and neutrino ...
in
Lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cut, ...
,
South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux Native American tribes, who comprise a large po ...
.


History

Research Research is "creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness ...
at TUNL is focused on
nuclear physics Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies atomic nuclei and their constituents and interactions, in addition to the study of other forms of nuclear matter. Nuclear physics should not be confused with atomic physics, which studies t ...
, including studies on Fundamental symmetries,
Neutrino A neutrino ( ; denoted by the Greek letter ) is a fermion (an elementary particle with spin of ) that interacts only via the weak interaction and gravity. The neutrino is so named because it is electrically neutral and because its rest mass ...
s,
Nuclear astrophysics Nuclear astrophysics is an interdisciplinary part of both nuclear physics and astrophysics, involving close collaboration among researchers in various subfields of each of these fields. This includes, notably, nuclear reactions and their rates as ...
, and
Hadron In particle physics, a hadron (; grc, ἁδρός, hadrós; "stout, thick") is a composite subatomic particle made of two or more quarks held together by the strong interaction. They are analogous to molecules that are held together by the ...
structure. TUNL also conducts applied research, investigating the applications of nuclear physics to topics such as
National security National security, or national defence, is the security and defence of a sovereign state, including its citizens, economy, and institutions, which is regarded as a duty of government. Originally conceived as protection against military att ...
,
Public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the det ...
, and
Plant physiology Plant physiology is a subdiscipline of botany concerned with the functioning, or physiology, of plants. Closely related fields include plant morphology (structure of plants), plant ecology (interactions with the environment), phytochemistry (b ...
. The Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory was established in 1965, with a $2.5 Million grant from the
United States Atomic Energy Commission The United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was an agency of the United States government established after World War II by U.S. Congress to foster and control the peacetime development of atomic science and technology. President ...
providing the funding for a new 15 MeV Tandem Van de Graaff accelerator as well as a 15 MeV
Cyclotron A cyclotron is a type of particle accelerator invented by Ernest O. Lawrence in 1929–1930 at the University of California, Berkeley, and patented in 1932. Lawrence, Ernest O. ''Method and apparatus for the acceleration of ions'', filed: Jan ...
. After three years of construction and testing, the new accelerator facility became operational in December 1968. Henry Newson, a nuclear physics professor at Duke University, was responsible for the proposal, was the original proponent of combining the efforts of the three universities, and served as the first director of the new laboratory. The Tandem Generator and the Cyclotron at TUNL were combined into what was named a Cyclo-Graaff accelerator. Ions would first be accelerated in the Cyclotron. Then, once the initial energy was high enough, the beam from the cyclotron would be injected into the Tandem Generator where it would be further accelerated. Using the accelerators together effectively doubled the maximum energy that the lab could reach when compared to the energies of each individual accelerator. This combination, the Cyclo-Graaff, would be used by Henry Newson to study Nuclear Structure until his death in 1978.


Facilities


Tandem Laboratory

An FN Tandem Van de Graaff Generator with a maximum terminal voltage of 10 Mega Volts. The facility can produce light ion beams made up of
Proton A proton is a stable subatomic particle, symbol , H+, or 1H+ with a positive electric charge of +1 ''e'' elementary charge. Its mass is slightly less than that of a neutron and 1,836 times the mass of an electron (the proton–electron mass ...
s, Deuterons, 3He Nuclei, and 4He Nuclei. The proton and neutron beams produced at the Tandem Laboratory are available either polarized or unpolarized depending on the experiment requirements. Through secondary beam collisions, the lab can also produce polarized neutron beams, allowing the lab to study neutron interactions. The Tandem Lab is primarily intended to study the
Strong force The strong interaction or strong force is a fundamental interaction that confines quarks into proton, neutron, and other hadron particles. The strong interaction also binds neutrons and protons to create atomic nuclei, where it is called the ...
at low energies. Research at Tandem includes few-nucleon dynamics, 2-nucleon transfer reactions, and neutron multiplication.


High Intensity Gamma-ray Source

The High Intensity Gamma-Ray Source (HIGS) produces gamma-rays by means of Compton backscattering. This occurs when photons from a
Free-electron laser A free-electron laser (FEL) is a (fourth generation) light source producing extremely brilliant and short pulses of radiation. An FEL functions and behaves in many ways like a laser, but instead of using stimulated emission from atomic or molecula ...
collide with accelerated
Electron The electron ( or ) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary electric charge. Electrons belong to the first generation of the lepton particle family, and are generally thought to be elementary particles because they have n ...
s, producing a beam of high energy photons with a very precise energy and a high degree of polarization. The gamma-ray beams can be produced with energies ranging from 1-100 MeV with a maximum intensity of 1000 \gamma/s/eV, making HIGS the highest intensity accelerator driven gamma-ray source in the world. Research at HIGS can be broken broadly into two groups: Nuclear Structure and Nuclear Astrophysics, with reactions such as (\gamma, \gamma'), (\gamma, n), and (\gamma, \alpha), along with Low-energy QCD, with studies on Compton scattering and Photo-
Pion In particle physics, a pion (or a pi meson, denoted with the Greek letter pi: ) is any of three subatomic particles: , , and . Each pion consists of a quark and an antiquark and is therefore a meson. Pions are the lightest mesons and, more gene ...
production.


Laboratory for Experimental Nuclear Astrophysics

The two accelerators housed at LENA combine to cover the entire range of energy values up to 1 MeV and produce beams that are both stable and intense. The lab focuses on light ion beams with high current that are optimized for applications to nuclear astrophysics. Research topics at LENA include the nuclear reactions that drive astrophysical processes such as Stellar evolution, Novae, and
X-ray bursts X-ray bursters are one class of X-ray binary stars exhibiting X-ray bursts, periodic and rapid increases in luminosity (typically a factor of 10 or greater) that peak in the X-ray region of the electromagnetic spectrum. These astrophysical sys ...
.


Education

Education in nuclear physics is provided at both a graduate and undergraduate level to students at the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory. TUNL draws around 40 graduate students from the three founding universities. Graduates find employment in diverse settings, including faculty positions, industry positions, and positions at government research facilities and the National Laboratories. Graduates George A. Keyworth II and John H. Gibbons served as presidential science advisers to presidents Ronald Reagan and
Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
respectively. One component of undergraduate education provided by TUNL is the TUNL/Duke Research Experiences for Undergraduates, a ten-week program funded by the
National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...
offered during the summer with locations on TUNL's campus as well as a limited number of positions at CERN. Undergraduates from the three founding universities as well as other associated universities conduct research with faculty members throughout the year.


References

{{Authority control Duke University campus Institutes associated with CERN