We report on commissioning experiments at the high-energy, high-temperature (HHT) target area at the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH, Darmstadt, Germany, combining for the first time intense pulses of heavy ions from the SIS18 synchrotron with high-energy laser pulses from the PHELIX laser facility. We demonstrate the use of X-ray diagnostic techniques based on intense laser-driven X-ray sources, which will allow probing of large samples volumetrically heated by the intense heavy-ion beams. A new target chamber as well as optical diagnostics for ion-beam characterization and fast pyrometric temperature measurements complement the experimental capabilities. This platform is designed for experiments at the future Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research in Europe GmbH (FAIR), where unprecedented ion-beam intensities will enable the generation of millimeter-sized samples under high-energy-density conditions.

We present in situ measurements of spectrally resolved X-ray scattering and X-ray diffraction from monocrystalline diamond samples heated with an intense pulse of heavy ions. In this way, we determine the samples’ heating dynamics and their microscopic and macroscopic structural integrity over a timespan of several microseconds. Connecting the ratio of elastic to inelastic scattering with state-of-the-art density functional theory molecular dynamics simulations allows the inference of average temperatures around 1300 K, in agreement with predictions from stopping power calculations. The simultaneous diffraction measurements show no hints of any volumetric graphitization of the material, but do indicate the onset of fracture in the diamond sample. Our experiments pave the way for future studies at the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research, where a substantially increased intensity of the heavy ion beam will be available.

The Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) will employ the World's highest intensity relativistic beams of heavy nuclei to uniquely create and investigate macroscopic (millimeter-sized) quantities of highly energetic and dense states of matter. Four principal themes of research have been identified: properties of materials driven to extreme conditions of pressure and temperature, shocked matter and material equation of state, basic properties of strongly coupled plasma and warm dense matter, and nuclear photonics with a focus on the excitation of nuclear processes in plasmas, laser-driven particle acceleration, and neutron production. The research program, principally driven by an international collaboration of scientists, called the HED@FAIR collaboration, will evolve over the next decade as the FAIR project completes and experimental capabilities develop. The first programmatic research element, called “FAIR Phase 0, officially began in 2018 to test components, detectors, and experimental techniques. Phase-0 research employs the existing and enhanced infrastructure of the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung (GSI) heavy-ion synchrotron coupled with the PHELIX high-energy, high-intensity laser. The “FAIR Day one” experimental program, presently scheduled to begin in 2025, commences the use of FAIR's heavy-ion synchrotron, coupled to new experimental and diagnostic infrastructure, to realize the envisaged high-energy-density-science research program.

The experiments on matter under extreme conditions of density and temperature which are proposed by the HED@FAIR plasma physics collaboration at the new accelerator facility FAIR in Darmstadt, Germany require a strong final focusing system for energetic heavy ion beams. The main components of this system are four wide-aperture quadrupoles which have to provide a millimeter-size focal spot at the target. These superconducting magnets have 33 T/m central gradient with the inner aperture diameter of 240 mm and the magnetic length of 2 m. While designing the magnets, it has turned out that the magnet's aperture shall be increased to 260 mm, and the design distance between the magnet's centers of 2.5 m cannot be kept. Therefore it was necessary to reduce the physical length of the magnets and correspondingly, to compensate the integral field gradient by increasing the current. New requirements led to the development of a new magnets geometry which is presented along with parameters of the correction system and considerations about the magnet's cooling system.

The beamline for plasma physics experiments within the APPA cave at the FAIR facility is devoted to the generation and investigation of high energy density (HED) states of matter by means of intense heavy ion and laser beams and eventual additional pulsed power systems. The deposition of correspondingly large amounts of energy within shortest time is a must for achieving the targeted states. Thus the main operation mode during plasma physics experiments is supposed to be single pulse, with a shotto-shot time of not less than a few minutes, needed for target exchange and the recharging of the pulsed power systems. Several different devices, including but not limited to fast shutter, framing and streak cameras, fast interferometers and radiation detectors have to be synchronized and have to deliver the acquired data every shot. The delivered data has to be reliably stored and eventually preprocessed in due time. The data has also to be available to all the members of the collaborations working on the experiments. The present TDR depicts all crucial parts of the supervisory control and data acquisition system to be deployed at the plasma physics beamline, including the data acquisition and storage hardware and the control software. Moreover, the synchronization issues related to eventual high jitter of pulsed power systems are discussed and a solution is proposed.

Permanent magnet quadrupoles (PMQs) are an alternative to common electromagnetic quadrupoles especially for fixed rigidity beam transport scenarios at particle accelerators. Using those magnets for experimental setups can result in certain scenarios, in which a PMQ itself may be exposed to a large amount of primary and secondary particles with a broad energy spectrum, interacting with the magnetic material and affecting its magnetic properties. One specific scenario is proton microscopy, where a proton beam traverses an object and a collimator in which a part of the beam is scattered and deflected into PMQs used as part of a diagnostic system. During the commissioning of the PRIOR (Proton Microscope for Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research) high energy proton microscope facility prototype at Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung in 2014, a significant reduction of the image quality was observed which was partially attributed to the demagnetization of the used PMQ lenses and the corresponding decrease of the field quality. In order to study this phenomenon, Monte Carlo simulations were carried out and spare units manufactured from the same magnetic material—single wedges and a fully assembled PMQ module—were deliberately irradiated by a 3.6 GeV intense proton beam. The performed investigations have shown that in proton radiography applications the above described scattering may result in a high irradiation dose in the PMQ magnets. This did not only decrease the overall magnetic strength of the PMQs but also caused a significant degradation of the field quality of an assembled PMQ module by increasing the parasitic multipole field harmonics which effectively makes PMQs impractical for proton radiography applications or similar scenarios.

The charged particle community is looking for techniques exploiting proton interactions instead of X-ray absorption for creating images of human tissue. Due to multiple Coulomb scattering inside the measured object it has shown to be highly non-trivial to achieve sufficient spatial resolution. We present imaging of biological tissue with a proton microscope. This device relies on magnetic optics, distinguishing it from most published proton imaging methods. For these methods reducing the data acquisition time to a clinically acceptable level has turned out to be challenging. In a proton microscope, data acquisition and processing are much simpler. This device even allows imaging in real time. The primary medical application will be image guidance in proton radiosurgery. Proton images demonstrating the potential for this application are presented. Tomographic reconstructions are included to raise awareness of the possibility of high-resolution proton tomography using magneto-optics.

Early Experiments at FAIR in 2018 ‐ 2022 suggested by the HEDgeHOB collaboration in the field of non‐ideal plasma physics are discussed. Specific energies of 5‐10 kJ/g, pressures of 1‐2 GPa and temperatures of 1‐2 eV are expected to be reached in the substance at the first experiments with a U +28 beam with the energy of 0.2 AGeV and maximal intensity 3 · 10 10 per impulse. It will provide the possibility to investigate the two phase region including the critical point of several metals in HIHEX (Heavy Ion Heating and EXpansion) experiments with the plane and cylindrical geometry, realizing regimes of quasi‐isochoric heating, isentropic expansion and compression when the flow strikes the target. Analysis of thermal radiation transfer will give information on the vaporization dynamics. Measurements of electrical conductivity and optical properties on the supercritical adiabat will disclose information on the insulator to metal transition under these conditions. (© 2016 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Recently, a new high energy proton microscopy facility PRIOR (Proton Microscope for FAIR Facility for Anti-proton and Ion Research) has been designed, constructed, and successfully commissioned at GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung (Darmstadt, Germany). As a result of the experiments with 3.5-4.5 GeV proton beams delivered by the heavy ion synchrotron SIS-18 of GSI, 30 μm spatial and 10 ns temporal resolutions of the proton microscope have been demonstrated. A new pulsed power setup for studying properties of matter under extremes has been developed for the dynamic commissioning of the PRIOR facility. This paper describes the PRIOR setup as well as the results of the first static and dynamic proton radiography experiments performed at GSI.

FAIR with its intense beams of ions and antiprotons provides outstanding and worldwide unique experimental conditions for extreme matter research in atomic and plasma physics and for application oriented research in biophysics, medical physics and materials science. The associated research programs comprise interaction of matter with highest electromagnetic fields, properties of plasmas and of solid matter under extreme pressure, density, and temperature conditions, simulation of galactic cosmic radiation, research in nanoscience and charged particle radiotherapy. A broad variety of APPA-dedicated facilities including experimental stations, storage rings, and traps, equipped with most sophisticated instrumentation will allow the APPA community to tackle new challenges. The worldwide most intense source of slow antiprotons will expand the scope of APPA related research to the exciting field of antimatter.

Protons having energies in the GeV range have been proposed as an alternative to Bragg-peak hadron therapy. This strategy reduces lateral scattering and overcomes uncertainties of particle range and relative biological effectiveness. GeV protons could additionally be used for targeting in image guided stereotactic radiosurgery. We experimentally demonstrated the potential of GeV protons for imaging of biological samples using E=0.8 GeV protons and the pRad setup at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). In this setup, a system of magnetic lenses creates a point-to-point mapping from object to detector. This mapping compensates image blur due to lateral scattering inside the imaged (biological) object. We produced 2-dim proton radiographs of biological samples, an anthropomorphic phantom and performed simple dosimetry. High resolution tomographic reconstructions were derived from the 2-dim proton radiographs. Our experiment was performed within the framework of the PANTERA (Proton Therapy and Radiography) project. In the future, the proton microscope PRIOR (Proton Microscope for FAIR) located in the FAIR facility (Darmstadt), will focus on optimizing the technique for imaging of lesions implanted in animals and couple the irradiation with standard radiotherapy.

The new proton radiography facility PRIOR[2] (Proton microscope for FAIR) was developed at SIS-18 accelerator at GSI (Darmstadt, Germany). PRIOR setup is designed for measurement, with high spatial resolution up to 10 μm, of density distribution of static and dynamic objects by using a proton beam with energy up to 4.5 GeV. In the first experiments with static objects with 3.6 Gev proton, was demonstrated a spatial resolution of 30 μm. Dynamic commissioning was performed with target based on underwater electrical wires explosion with electrical pulse with current amplitude of ~200 kA and rise time ~1 μs.

The behaviour of Pb during isentropic compression on the front surface of a sapphire window (Fig. 1) was analyzed using a fast multi-channel pyrometer [1] and a specially developed imaging displacement interferometer (Fig. 2), designed to permit for the first time simultaneous temperature and pressure measurements (Fig. 3) by integrating the light collection optics for both systems on the pyrometer head. The specularly reflecting sapphire surface is imaged on a 50% beam-splitter through a doubly afocal system in order to keep the optical front flat. It is further relayed to the surface of the reference mirror which can be tilted remotely to allow for fringe tuning, and to an alignment camera and a streak camera, at a final resolution of ~50 μm. The imaging capability is used to solve fringe movement uncertainties.

Heavy ion heating and expansion and laboratory planetary sciences experiments are designed by the high energy density matter generated by heavy ion beams collaboration to study matter under extreme conditions of temperature and pressure at the FAIR facility in Darmstadt, Germany. A special final focusing system has to be installed at the end of the high energy density matter generated by heavy ion beams beam line for strong transverse focusing. To provide a focal spot of the size of a millimeter or less, a large focal angle is needed and, consequently, large-aperture high-gradient quadrupole magnets have to be used in the final focusing system. The Institute for High Energy Physics has considered the basic principles of the development of these magnets. The main parameters of the quadrupole are: the central gradient is 33 T/m; the inner diameter of the coil is 240 mm; the effective length of the magnet is 2 m; and the operating mode is dc. Design features of these quadrupole magnets are detailed: the superconducting wire, 2- and 3-D optimization of the coil and yoke geometry, and mechanical analysis. Preliminary considerations are given on the parameters of the protection and cooling systems of the magnets.

The Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research in Europe (FAIR) will provide worldwide unique accelerator and experimental facilities allowing for a large variety of unprecedented frontier research in extreme state of matter physics and applied science. Indeed, it is the largest basic research project on the roadmap of the European Strategy Forum of Research Infrastructures (ESFRI), and it is cornerstone of the European Research Area. FAIR offers to scientists from the whole world an abundance of outstanding research opportunities, broader in scope than any other contemporary large-scale facility worldwide. More than 2500 scientists are involved in setting up and exploiting the FAIR facility. They will push the frontiers of our knowledge in plasma, nuclear, atomic, hadron and applied physics far ahead, with important implications also for other fields in science such as cosmology, astro and particle physics, and technology. It includes 14 initial experiments, which form the four scientific pillars of FAIR. The main thrust of intense heavy ion and laser beam-matter interaction research focuses on the structure and evolution of extreme state of matter on both a microscopic and on a cosmic scale.

High-energy proton microscopy provides unique capabilities in penetrating radiography including the combination of high spatial resolution and field-of-view, dynamic range of density for measurements, and reconstructing density variations to less than 1% inside volumes and in situ environments. We have recently proposed to exploit this novel proton radiography technique for image-guided stereotactic particle radiosurgery. Results of a first test for imaging biological and tissue-equivalent targets with high-energy (800 MeV) proton microscopy are presented here. Although we used a proton microscope setup at ITEP (Moscow, Russia) optimized for fast dynamic experiments in material research, we could reach a spatial resolution of 150 μm with approximately 1010 protons per image. The potential of obtaining high-resolution online imaging of the target using a therapeutic proton beam in the GeV energy region suggests that high-energy proton microscopy may be used for image-guided proton radiosurgery.

Intense, focused heavy ion beams from SIS can deposit a high power and high energy in the target material. The primary excitation and subsequent relaxationand thermalization processes can be studies when gases are used as the target material. Light emission from the whole beam excited volume can be observed at least at wavelengths where the target material is optically thin. This aspect can be used to study the beam profile by optical methods.

The goal of this works is to study of the recombination process in the plasma of positive and negative ions produced in the afterglow of gas discharge. Experimental study of the recombination process in this system showed a strong suppression of the recombination rate compared to the classical model [1] for the ion plasma consisting of fluoride or fluorides of sulfur. In this case, there is increasing deviation of the recombination rate from the results predicted by the classical model with increasing nonideality parameter of the system. Explanation for these results is possible within the framework of approaches based on the use of molecular dynamics simulation, which allow a detailed description of the interaction between the ions and molecules produced plasma. This makes it possible to give an adequate description of the impact the formation of loose ion pairs to the recombination process in the plasma. An earlier study of the recombination process [2] showed that the increase of the plasma nonideality parameter should strongly suppress the recombination process. This is due to the formation of zones of manybody fluctuations between regions of the pair states and free electrons. In this case, the recombination rate should be described by the following formula:

At the GSI Helmholtzzentrum fur Schwerionenforschung GmbH (Darmstadt, Germany) intense focused beams of energetic heavy ions are used to generate high-energy-density states in matter [1]. In recent experiments, initially solid tantalum and tungsten samples (50-90 mu m thick foils) were uniformly heated in a quasi-isobaric way by a microsecond ion-beam pulses. The temperature of a sample has been observed by a fast multi-channel optical pyrometer during and after the heating. The isobaric heat capacity of the melted metals as well as the enthalpy of fusion have been obtained from the temperature - enthalpy dependence, calculated from measured temperature-time data. A good measurement statistics has been achieved by carrying out a large number of the same experiments with identical targets. The obtained experimental results for liquid tantalum and tungsten heated up to 5000 K are presented and discussed.