Speaker
Description
Extreme Light Infrastructure – Nuclear Physics (ELI–NP) [1] is the nuclear physics pillar of the pan–European Extreme Light Infrastructure project [2]. ELI–NP was implemented on the Măgurele National Physics Platform by the National Institute for R&D in Physics and Nuclear Engineering "Horia Hulubei". Two state–of–the–art sources of extreme light stay at the core of the project: a 2 x 10 PW ultra–short pulse high–power laser system and a high–intensity gamma beam system and several experimental setups were developed to take advantage of the extreme photon beams with unprecedented characteristics provided by
LI–NP.
Basic science research aims at revealing the mechanisms at the basis of particle acceleration driven by high–power lasers and to enable exotic nuclear physics experiments in plasma conditions to reproduce stellar environment evolution in laboratory. Gamma beams will enable the study of electromagnetic dipole response of nuclei and nuclear reactions of astrophysical interest. The results of the basic research will enable novel applications in life sciences, industrial and medical fields.
The high–power laser system is operational since 2020 and a thorough program of experimental setups commissioning was performed since then. The experimental setups at 100 TW and 1 PW laser powers were successfully commissioned and are available for users. The 10 PW experimental setups are under commissioning and they will become available to users in 2024. ELI–NP started operation as user facility in 2022 when the first call for users was launched in close collaboration with ELI ERIC.
The intense gamma beam system is under construction and will start operation in 2026. The experimental setups for the gamma beam were implemented providing state–of–the–art devices for nuclear physics studies. A preparatory experimental program is currently running with these detection setups on complementary science topics with the gamma beam based studies.
The ELI-NP project Phase II is co–funded by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund and by the Romanian Govern through the Competitiveness Operational Programme.
[1] https://www.eli-np.ro .
[2] G. Mourou et al., “WHITEBOOK ELI – Extreme Light Infrastructure; Science and Technology with Ultra-Intense Lasers” (2011). doi: 10.13140/2.1.1227.0889
