U.S. Dept. of Energy Awards MSU $115M for High Rigidity Spectrometer

The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science (DOE-SC) has awarded Michigan State University in East Lansing $115 million for the High Rigidity Spectrometer (HRS) project at the school’s Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB).

The HRS instrument will enable scientists to characterize the properties of isotopes that are created in rare-isotope reactions produced at about 50 percent of the speed of light.

With the ability to measure properties such as the mass, charge, and velocity of rare isotopes produced in those conditions, HRS will be a centerpiece experimental instrument of FRIB’s fast-beam program that will substantially increase FRIB’s scientific reach and productivity.

Supporting a user community of more than 500 scientists planning to use HRS, the new cooperative agreement provides $115,306,881 over seven years to establish and operate HRS. The 2015 Nuclear Science Advisory Committee Long Range Plan identified HRS as a key instrument for FRIB.

The HRS cooperative agreement is in addition to the recently awarded FRIB cooperative agreement supporting FRIB operations. The DOE-SC awarded $529 million over five years to operate FRIB as a DOE-SC user facility to enable unprecedented discovery opportunities envisioned by a user community of 1,800 scientists, supporting the mission of the DOE-SC Office of Nuclear Physics. HRS serves about one-fourth of those users.

HRS will thus extend FRIB’s scientific reach to neutron-rich isotopes by up to a factor of more than 100. This will be beneficial, particularly for experiments with the most neutron-rich isotopes that have the highest potential for discovery. The increase will enable experiments not otherwise possible anywhere in the world, such as detailed studies of calcium-60. Calcium-60 has 12 more neutrons than the heaviest stable isotope of calcium found in nature. It is of particular interest to understand the forces that bind neutrons and protons into nuclei.

FRIB enables scientists to make discoveries about the properties of rare isotopes, nuclear astrophysics, fundamental interactions and applications for society, including in medicine, homeland security and industry, through research with fast, stopped and reaccelerated rare isotope beams.

FRIB provides researchers with a vast unexplored terrain of more than 1,000 new rare isotopes never before produced — more than double what was previously possible.

Since the start of user operation in May 2022, FRIB has delivered more than 210 rare isotope beams to experiments and supported 665 participants, including 177 students, across 50 countries and 189 institutions (including U.S. national laboratories, colleges and universities).

“This new award enables us to design and establish a new instrument at FRIB, which substantially increases FRIB’s scientific impact, in support of a large, multi-institutional user community of more than 500 scientists planning to use HRS in their forefront research,” says Thomas Glasmacher, director of FRIB Laboratory. “We are so thankful for the continued trust the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, our Michigan Congressional delegation, and MSU have placed in FRIB to forward the nation’s rare-isotope research capabilities.”