The Gammasphere is a third generation
gamma ray spectrometer
A gamma-ray spectrometer (GRS) is an instrument for measuring the distribution (or spectrum—see figure) of the intensity of gamma radiation versus the energy of each photon.
The study and analysis of gamma-ray spectra for scientific and techni ...
used to study rare and exotic
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 th ...
. It consists of 110 Compton-suppressed large volume, high-purity germanium detectors arranged in a spherical shell.
Gammasphere has been used to perform a variety of experiments in nuclear physics. Most experiments involve using
heavy ion
High-energy nuclear physics studies the behavior of nuclear matter in energy regimes typical of high-energy physics. The primary focus of this field is the study of heavy-ion collisions, as compared to lighter atoms in other particle accelerator ...
nuclear fusion
Nuclear fusion is a nuclear reaction, reaction in which two or more atomic nuclei combine to form a larger nuclei, nuclei/neutrons, neutron by-products. The difference in mass between the reactants and products is manifested as either the rele ...
to form a highly excited
atomic nucleus
The atomic nucleus is the small, dense region consisting of protons and neutrons at the center of an atom, discovered in 1911 by Ernest Rutherford at the Department_of_Physics_and_Astronomy,_University_of_Manchester , University of Manchester ...
. This nucleus may then emit
proton
A proton is a stable subatomic particle, symbol , Hydron (chemistry), H+, or 1H+ with a positive electric charge of +1 ''e'' (elementary charge). Its mass is slightly less than the mass of a neutron and approximately times the mass of an e ...
s,
neutron
The neutron is a subatomic particle, symbol or , that has no electric charge, and a mass slightly greater than that of a proton. The Discovery of the neutron, neutron was discovered by James Chadwick in 1932, leading to the discovery of nucle ...
s, or
alpha particle
Alpha particles, also called alpha rays or alpha radiation, consist of two protons and two neutrons bound together into a particle identical to a helium-4 nucleus. They are generally produced in the process of alpha decay but may also be produce ...
s followed by a shower of tens of
gamma ray
A gamma ray, also known as gamma radiation (symbol ), is a penetrating form of electromagnetic radiation arising from high energy interactions like the radioactive decay of atomic nuclei or astronomical events like solar flares. It consists o ...
s. Gammasphere is used to measure properties of these gamma-rays for tens of millions of such gamma ray showers. The resultant data are analyzed to gain a deeper understanding of the properties of nuclei.
Gammasphere was built in the early 1990s and has operated at the 88-inch
cyclotron
A cyclotron is a type of particle accelerator invented by Ernest 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: Januar ...
at
Berkeley National Laboratory and at
Argonne National Laboratory
Argonne National Laboratory is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in Lemont, Illinois, Lemont, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1946, the laboratory is owned by the United Sta ...
.
In the movie
''Hulk'', Bruce Banner is zapped by a machine called the Gammasphere. The actual Gammasphere, which detects rather than emits gamma rays, was used as a model for the device shown in the movie.
ScienceDaily: Gammasphere Featured In New 'Hulk' Movie
See also
* Canadian Penning Trap Mass Spectrometer The Canadian Penning Trap Mass Spectrometer (CPT) is one of the major pieces of experimental equipment that is installed on the ATLAS superconducting heavy-ion linac facility at the Physics Division of the Argonne National Laboratory. It was develop ...
* Helical Orbit Spectrometer (HELIOS)
The helical orbit spectrometer (HELIOS) is a measurement device for studying nuclear reactions in inverse kinematics. It is installed at the Argonne Tandem Linear Accelerator System, ATLAS facility at Argonne National Laboratory.
History
The HELI ...
References
External links
LBNL
LBL site.
Gammasphere Online Booklet Homepage
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100612111726/http://nucalf.physics.fsu.edu/~riley/gamma/ , date=2010-06-12
Spectrometers