Control room of the RCNP, it controls 2 cyclotrons: a big one in the basement (~15m diameter) and a smaller one on the ground (~3m). For those that don't know a cyclotron produces protons (which make up atoms) gives these protons a lot of energy then throws them at things
Beam line diagrams for the cyclotrons, the left is for the little one; the big one on the right. The lines coming out are beams lines, along which the protons are launched to their various experiments.
More of the control room just because it's very geek retro (there are analogue oscilloscopes!)
This is the music proton target (red thing) with the proton beam line (near thing), this will produce pions which will decay into muons (which is what we want).
A view of the helium compressors, radiation shielding (the big white concrete blocks) and the pion capture solenoid.
My friend, a display about MUSIC, the proton beam line and in the background helium compressors and a spare target solenoid (the orange thing)
The end of the transport solenoid, eventually this will curve right round to the main MUSIC project, at the moment it's a 36 degree bend. This is the pipe that the pions will decay in to produce muons that we can then research.
Close up of the transport solenoid, the bore is about 30 cm, the entire thing is kept at 4K (kelvin, 4 degrees above absolute 0 or -289C).
Scintillators, these glow when hit by radiation, (well the clear plastic inside does) the light is then measured by the things on the end (PMTs) - these are similar to what I've been working on this week and are what I'll be using for the main experiment
Making scintillators, on the left you can see PMTs connected to light guides (similar to optical fibres) and on the right various shapes of scintillator
a section of FFAG (fixed field alternating gradient) magnet - one tenth of MUSIC - this will form something like a banked race track for muons to speed them up before throwing them at things, it's about 2m tall and 3m wide
One of the other experiments in the hall - we couldn't go any closer as it was radioactive, the beam was on yesterday; this also meant we were reminded by a constant fire alarm style alert.
NIM crates, these are used as a first line of data processing and control, beyond that I have no idea what this does as it's for the other experiment.
Predicted radiation levels for MUSIC; according to wikipedia 5 grays of whole body exposure will probably kill you in 2 weeks, this is measured in k-gray which is 1000 grays, suffice to say when the beams on you're not allowed anywhere near this stuff! next time I go I'll photograph the thickness of the walls/doors (it's impressive)
