INSTYTUT PROBLEMÓW JDROWYCH im. Andrzeja Sotana The Andrzej Sotan INSTITUTE FOR NUCLEAR STUDIES

ANNUAL REPORT 2009

PL-05-400 OTWOCK-WIERK, POLAND tel.: 048 22 718 05 83 fax: 048 22 779 34 81 e-mail: [email protected] http://www.ipj.gov.pl

Editors: N. Keeley J. Skalski

Secretarial work and layout: A. Odziemczyk

On the front cover: wierk Nuclear Center – aerial view, MGGP Aero (www.mggpaero.com)

Printed by

Stanisaw Fuksiewicz Usugi Wydawniczo-Poligraficzne

ISSN 1232-5309

Annual Report 2009 3

CONTENTS

FOREWORD...... 5 I. GENERAL INFORMATION...... 7 1. LOCATIONS ...... 7 2. MANAGEMENT OF THE INSTITUTE...... 7 3. SCIENTIFIC COUNCIL...... 8 4. DEPARTMENTS OF THE INSTITUTE...... 9 5. MAIN RESEARCH ACTIVITIES...... 10 6. SCIENTIFIC STAFF OF THE INSITUTE...... 12 7. VISITING SCIENTISTS...... 14 8. GRANTS ...... 15 9. PARTICIPATION IN NATIONAL CONSORTIA AND SCIENTIFIC NETWORKS...... 18 10. DEGREES ...... 19 11. THE GENERAL CONCEPT OF THE FREE ELECTRON LASER POLFEL AT THE SOTAN INSTITUTE FOR NUCLEAR STUDIES...... 19 12. THE LARGE HADRON COLLIDER – HOW DOES IT WORK? A TRAVELLING EXHIBITION...... 22 II. DEPARTMENTS OF THE INSTITUTE...... 23 1. DEPARTMENT OF NUCLEAR REACTIONS...... 23 2. DEPARTMENT OF INTERDISCIPLINARY PHYSICS APPLICATIONS...... 29 3. DEPARTMENT OF DETECTORS AND NUCLEAR ELECTRONICS ...... 33 5. DEPARTMENT OF PLASMA PHYSICS AND MATERIAL ENGINEERING ....37 6. DEPARTMENT OF HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS ...... 45 7. DEPARTMENT OF COSMIC RAY PHYSICS...... 51 8. DEPARTMENT OF THEORETICAL PHYSICS ...... 57 9. DEPARTMENT OF ACCELERATOR PHYSICS AND TECHNOLOGY...... 63 10. LABORATORY OF ASTROPHYSICAL APPARATUS...... 67 11. DEPARTMENT OF TRAINING AND CONSULTING...... 73 12. DEPARTMENT OF NUCLEAR EQUIPMENT “HIGH TECHNOLOGY CENTER – HITEC” ...... 77 13. DIVISION OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY...... 79 4 Annual Report 2009

III. REPORTS ON RESEARCH ...... 81 ASTROPHYSICS, COSMIC RAYS AND ELEMENTARY PARTICLE PHYSICS...... 83 NUCLEAR PHYSICS ...... 109 PLASMA PHYSICS & TECHNOLOGY ...... 129 DETECTORS, ACCELERATORS, PHYSICS OF MATERIALS & APPLICATIONS 139 IV. OBITUARIES...... 169 V. LIST OF PUBLICATIONS ...... 173 VI. AUTHOR INDEX...... 191

Annual Report 2009 5

FOREWORD

The year 2009 turned out to be “nuclear year” in Poland. On January 13 the government launched preparations for the Polish Nuclear Power Program. An ambitious goal has been set to build the first power plant by 2020. The program involves public authorities, commercial investors and research support. The strategic document “Energy policy of Poland till 2030” assigned the third role to the Polish nuclear research institutes, including IPJ. They will join forces to form the National Laboratory for Nuclear Research. The procedure for the necessary legislation has been initiated and the creation of the new Lab. is expected by 2011. In the meantime the institutes have begun preparations, taking advantage of European structural funds available this year. IPJ has received positive decisions on three major projects. A Computing Center at wierk will provide high computing power for safety evaluation of nuclear reactors with deterministic and probabilistic codes. The scope of the new Computing Center under construction at wierk enables it to play a national and international role. It will support the Polish authorities in nuclear safety evaluation in accordance with the standards of the International Atomic Energy Agency and EURATOM. The experts engaged in setting up the Center have considerable experience with massive computing at CERN. They have participated from the very beginning in the various GRID projects including the creation of the Polish nodes. These assets are planned to be used in setting up a network communication center for the nuclear safety assessment of nuclear installations, which will serve the IAEA and its member states. The project is funded within the framework of the “Operational Program Innovative Economy”. Two other projects called briefly “Techno-Park” and “5 labs” are awaiting signature of the agreements with the local authorities realizing the “Regional Operational Program of Mazovia”. Techno-Park will be an interface between the research conducted in wierk and industry. It is expected that high-tech companies will come to wierk to profit from the knowledge of our experts and to make use of our research infrastructure. The upgrade of this infrastructure is foreseen in the “5 labs” project. It is designed to support research which will be important in the context of the nuclear power program. It is well known that "there can be no applied science unless there is science to apply"1. IPJ exploits the synergy between fundamental research and applied studies in a very constructive way. A solid base for the nuclear power program lies in our great experience in nuclear and particle physics. The most important achievements of IPJ in 2009 have been in these fields. IPJ achievement of the year 2009 has been granted to dr Nicholas Keeley for co-authorship of an experimental study of the 8He-197Au reaction (performed at GANIL) and the explanation of the observed fusion hindrance above the Coulomb barrier by including transfer of neutrons within the coupled channels formalism 2. Dr hab. Lech Szymanowski has been distinguished for co-authorship of the theoretical analysis of an elementary process which can provide information on the chiral-odd distribution of the quark transversal spin polarization in the proton in forthcoming experiments3. The practical experience needed for the nuclear power program is being collected by IPJ teams participating in the design and construction of major European research infrastructures. Enormous detectors built for LHC experiments at CERN have just demonstrated their performance with cosmic rays and the first proton-proton collisions. The CMS muon trigger, LHCb straw tube chambers and ALICE photon spectrometer (PHOS), all constructed with significant participation from IPJ,

1 W.C. Mendenhall, in G.O. Smith, U.S. Geological Survey 49th Annual Report, 1928, p. 8 2 Phys. Rev. Lett. 103 (2009) 232701, Prog. Part. Nucl. Phys. 63 (2009) 396 3 Phys. Rev. Lett. 103 (2009) 072002

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successfully registered particles passing through. The first elements for the upgrade of the CERN accelerators to reach the LHC design parameters have been delivered and a new contract is in preparation. Construction of the 3.4 km long X-ray Free Electron Laser at DESY (Hamburg) has just started, where IPJ contributes to the LLRF electronics and Higher Order Mode Absorbers for the accelerating cavities. IPJ also joined the design efforts for the European Spallation Source in Sweden and detectors for the FAIR heavy-ion research complex in GSI (Darmstadt). Also, the preparatory phase for construction of the Neutral Beam Injection elements for the thermonuclear reactor W7-X in Greifswald has been completed by IPJ. All these devices are characterized by a high level of radiation, large size and extensive use of advanced technologies. Therefore, they provide unique experience necessary for all kinds of large nuclear installations, including power reactors. The great excitement about the LHC startup was overshadowed by the sudden death of Professor Jan Nassalski. In a short moment we have lost the Scientific Director of IPJ, the Polish representative on the CERN Council, an eminent scientist, teacher of teachers and good friend of many of us. We will all do our best to continue his work, to realize his dream of a strong international position for Polish science with every pupil being aware and proud of it. Looking into the future we will continue the design effort for the Polish free electron laser POLFEL, to be built in wierk. New ideas have been recently developed extending POLFEL's capabilities towards an exciting and promising for new technologies region of terahertz radiation. More and more users in Poland and abroad are expressing their interest in the project, including materials researchers, chemist