J-PARC Project Newsletter No.83, July 2021 dispatch
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J-PARC Project Newsletter
No.83, July 2021
Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex under operation jointly by
the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) and the Japan
Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA)
http://j-parc.jp/index-e.html
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HEADLINES AND CONTENTS
1. [Overview]
NEW MANAGEMENT STARTED FROM APRIL 1st, 2021.
2. [Accelerator Division]
OPERATION STATUS OF THE ACCELERATORS.
3. [Particle and Nuclear Physics Division]
CURRENT AND FUTURE OF THE HADRON EXPERIMENTAL FACILITY.
UPGRADE WORK OF THE NEUTRINO EXPERIMENT FACILITY TOWARD 1.3 MW
BEAM POWER HAS STARTED.
STATUS OF THE COHERENT MUON TO ELECTRON TRANSITION (COMET).
STATUS OF THE MUON G-2/ ELECTRIC DIPOLE MOMENT (EDM) (E34).
4. [Materials and Life Science Division]
BEAM POWER WAS RAISED TO OVER 700 kW.
PROPOSALS FOR 2021B ROUND WERE RECEIVED.
MUSE GOT OFF TO A GOOD START IN FY2021.
5. [Nuclear Transmutation Division]
TWO WORKSHOPS ON J-PARC’S IRRADIATION FACILITY WERE HELD BY THE
NUCLEAR TRANSMUTATION DIVISION.
6. [Safety Division]
THE PERIODICAL INSPECTION WAS SUCCESSFULLY CONDUCTED BY
THE RADIATION MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE, INC.(RAMI).
J-PARC SAFETY DAY 2021.
THE APPLICATION FOR A LICENSE OF THE OPERATION WAS GRANTED.
7. [Editorial Note]
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1. [Overview] by Takashi KOBAYASHI
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NEW MANAGEMENT STARTED FROM APRIL 1st, 2021
New management took over the successful former management
headed by Dr. Naohito Saito, who had served the J-PARC director for
6 years since April 2015. We would like to thank Saito-san and former
management for their great contribution to J-PARC.
I, Takashi Kobayashi, took over the J-PARC director from this April
for 3 years. I have been working on accelerator-based long baseline
neutrino oscillation experiments.
We have three deputy directors; all of them are new.
Dr. Yukihiro Miyamoto is the deputy director in charge of Safety,
Dr. Shuichi Wakimoto and Dr. Fujio Naito are in charge of JAEA and KEK,
respectively.
The organization structure, Division Heads and Section leaders
can be found at
https://j-parc.jp/c/en/about/organization.html
We, all the J-PARC members, will work together with all of the
users to maximize the scientific outcome from J-PARC with the safety
at highest priority.
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2. [Accelerator Division] by Michikazu KINSHO
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OPERATION STATUS OF THE ACCELERATORS
Achieved a new record for continuous operation of ion source and
bunched slow beam extraction at energy of 8 GeV successfully
conducted at MR
The beam operation as an operation run of Run#86, which started
late in November last year, continued until April 30th on schedule.
The beam power for the Materials and Life Science experimental
facility (MLF) user program increased from 600 kW to 700 kW on April
5th. The neutrino user operation was carried out from April 8th to
end of this operation run of Run#86 at the beam power of 510 kW
after HD user operation.
A new operation run of Run#87 was started in May after ion source
replacement. The reason why the ion source was replaced was not
because it was broken, but to prevent it from being broken during the
user operation.
The continuous operation record of this replaced ion source was
more than 3600 hours (3651 hours), which is more than 1.5 times
longer than the previous continuous operation time and a new record.
The user program resumed for the MLF on May 10th. The beam power
for the MLF user was 700 kW which was the same as the previous user
operation by April. The MLF user program will be performed until July
15th before summer shutdown.
The user program resumed for the hadron on May 11th. The maximum
beam power of 64 kW was achieved through repeated adjustments, and
the utilization operation was carried out at this power. The hadron
user program will be performed until end of June.
From May 19 to 25, the Main Ring synchrotron (MR) suspended the
normal hadron user operation, and carried out a test run for the
COMET experiment. In this test operation, we worked on bunched slow
beam extraction at energy of 8 GeV instead of the usual continuous
slow beam extraction at energy of 30 GeV. In this test operation,
good experimental data were obtained for the realization of the COMET
experiment.
The MR will enter a long maintenance period until next autumn for
upgrade from July 1st.
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3. [Particle and Nuclear Physics Division] by T. TAKAHASHI and K. OZAWA
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CURRENT AND FUTURE OF THE HADRON EXPERIMENTAL FACILITY
(by T. Takahashi and K. Ozawa)
The slow-extraction of Main Ring for the Hadron Experimental
Facility was conducted from March 27 to April 7, 2021 and from May
10 to June 29, 2021. In the first operation period, we completed the
data acquisition for measurements of X-rays from Xi- atoms at the
K1.8 beam line. The X-rays measurements aim to study Baryon-Baryon
interactions at Strangeness S=-2 sector. In the second operation
period, an H-dibaryon search experiment completed their data taking.
The H-dibaryon is a particle which contains two sets of up, down, and
strange quarks. Whether the H-dibaryon exists or not is a
long-standing issue in hadron physics.
The KOTO experiment continued their data acquisition to search
for K_L to pi0 nu nu-bar decays at the KL beam line in both operation
periods. Also, an experiment at the B line to study mass modifications
of vector mesons in a nucleus took pilot data for evaluations of
detector performances. At K1.8BR beamline, pilot data on lifetime
measurements of hypertriton were taken and extinction measurements
were also carried out for a mu-e conversion experiment (COMET).
In addition to the current experimental activities, future plans
of the Hadron Experimental Facility were intensively discussed. We
have a plan to extend the current experimental hall and construct
additional beam lines, such as K1.1 beam line, High-Intensity-High-Resolution
(HIHR) beamline, K10 beamline, and new KL beamline. We have following
workshops to discuss physics opportunities and designs of beam lines.
Workshop on Physics at the J-PARC K10 beam line (5/13-14):
https://indico.rcnp.osaka-u.ac.jp/event/1672/
Workshop on Physics at HIHR and K1.1 beam lines (5/23):
https://kds.kek.jp/event/38112/
Workshop on Physics of Omega Baryons at the J-PARC K10 beam line (6/7-9):
https://indico.rcnp.osaka-u.ac.jp/event/1689/
Strangeness in Neutron Stars --Physics at J-PARC HIHR/K1.1 beam
lines (6/17-19): https://kds.kek.jp/event/38476/
International Workshop on the Extension Project for the J-PARC Hadron
Experimental Facility (7/7-9): https://indico2.riken.jp/event/3773/
UPGRADE WORK OF THE NEUTRINO EXPERIMENT FACILITY TOWARD 1.3 MW
BEAM POWER HAS STARTED
（by Y. Fujii)
The second half of the T2K run in 2021 resumed on 4/8 and ended
on 4/27. Stable operation with 510kW beam power was achieved through
this run, and nearly planned POT was accumulated. Integrated POT
from the start of the experiment has reached 2.17x10^21 for neutrino
mode and 1.65x10^21 for anti-neutrino mode. NINJA also finished pilot
data taking successfully with heavy-water target and a new time-stamp
movers, and are developing their emulsion plate.
After this run, the neutrino experiment facility has entered long
shutdown period for regular maintenance, improvement and replacement
of equipment necessary for coming 1.3MW operation. Excitation test of
the new horn strip lines, feed-throughs, and the transformer was
successfully carried out with 320kW operation current. The new horns
with all these components will be installed during this shut down period
to welcome the new run in fall 2022.
Dr. Chris J. Densham at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, an
innovator of T2K and many other neutrino production targets, has won
the 2021 Institute of Physics Prize for Outstanding Professional
Contributions to accelerator science and technology.
http://www.j-parc.jp/c/en/topics/2021/06/03000696.html
STATUS OF THE COHERENT MUON TO ELECTRON TRANSITION (COMET)
(by S. MIHARA)
The COMET experiment aims to search for the lepton-flavor
violating muon reaction, mu-e conversion, with a sensitivity better
than 10^{-14} in Phase I.
Facility construction work continues; along with beam line and
experiment area construction the COMET cryogenics group is intensively
preparing a liquid helium refrigerator and peripheral equipment such as
a current lead box (CLB). The CLB delivers electric current to the
superconducting magnet coils with temperature transition from the room
temperature to the liquid helium temperature with GM-refrigerators
equipped on the top of the box. The initial cooling test was carried out
in June successfully.
The COMET collaboration has finally completed an 8-GeV
acceleration and beam extraction test to measure the beam extinction
factor in the Hadron hall in May. In this test an improved proton
injection method from RCS to MR was tested and optimized, resulting
in successfully removing remaining protons in the 1st 100 msec during
the beam extraction period observed in the previous test in 2018.
Detailed data analysis is in progress to be reported in the coming
J-PARC PAC meeting.
The COMET collaboration plans to have the 34th collaboration
meeting early July to discuss the progress and status toward the
start of an engineering run (Phase alpha) in JFY 2022 and the physics
run (Phase I) in JFY 2023. The meeting will be held fully online also
this time with participation from 7 different time zones.
STATUS OF THE MUON G-2/ ELECTRIC DIPOLE MOMENT (EDM) (E34)
(by T. MIBE)
The E34 collaboration prepares for precision measurements of the
muon anomalous magnetic moment and electric dipole moment.
The collaboration had the 22nd collaboration meeting from June
1 to 4 to discuss the progress of the experimental preparation. The
collaboration also organized invited lectures on the Fermilab g-2
experiment by Dr. Peter Winter (ANL) and Dr. On Kim (KAIST), and
g-2 BSM theory by Dr. Teppei Kitahara.
KEK is preparing for a funding request of base facilities,
building and utilities. The collaboration worked with the facility
group to optimize design of the experimental building as well as the
relocation of the access road and buried facility infrastructure on
the construction site.
The collaboration is working on construction of the experimental
equipment. Demonstration of laser ionization of muonium for the
thermal energy positive muon source is in preparation at MLF S2 area.
The fabrications of the prototypes for IH-DTL cavity and DAW cavity
are ongoing. A pulsed electron beam is being prepared for the
demonstration of the 3D spiral injection.
The final version of the frontend electronics was successfully
produced.
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4. [Materials and Life Science Division] by Toshiya OTOMO
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BEAM POWER WAS RAISED TO OVER 700 kW
1) Neutron Source
The beam operation of MLF is going on very well with the daily
availability of 97.4 % on average since April 1st, as of June 16th in
2021. The beam power was raised from 600 kW to over 700 kW on
April 5th. Actually, MLF is receiving 740 kW during the MR operation
period with slow extraction mode, which is the highest power ever
attained for long term user operation of MLF. The power will be
decreased to 600 kW from June 24th in order to increase the cooling
capacity margin of accelerator devices under the humid and hot weather
of summer. After the user program will end on July 15th, 1MW beam
operation with the duration time of 16 hours is going to be held from
July 16th to 17th.
PROPOSALS FOR 2021B ROUND WERE RECEIVED
2) Neutron Instruments and Science
The MLF 2021B call for general use proposals (short-term and one-year)
was closed on May 14th, we have 325 neutron proposals including 9 new
user promotion proposals. The experimental periods are from November
2021 to March 2022 for short-term proposal (tentative) and from
November 2021 to July 2022 for one-year proposal (tentative)
respectively. The portion of the proposals from foreign countries
increases from 31% for 2020B+2021A to 37% for 2021B. All the proposals
are now under review process whose results will be notified till the
end of September 2021.
For discussing the future aspects of MLF, the consortium of
instruments in-house workshops “MLF2030-Neutron” was launched.
Three groups of instruments such as spectroscopy instruments,
elastic scattering instruments, and fundamental physics and others
beamlines now get started their discussions about instrumental
concepts, R&D for revolutionary devices, management of scientific / user
programs, and so on. By the end of this fiscal year, the fundamental
principles of MLF will be summarized.
The18th Korea-Japan meeting on neutron science hosted by JSNS
(The Japanese Society for Neutron Science), J-PARC MLF and KNBUA
(The Korean Neutron Beam Users Association) has been held on April
30th as an online meeting. After the facility reports from J-PARC MLF
in the morning session, Korean users of J-PARC, HANARO and the other
neutron facilities present six topics in the research fields of polymer
and softmatter sciences, material engineering, magnetism and neutron
instrumentation in the afternoon session, followed by parallel
discussions in three breakout rooms whose topics was selected by the
requests from Korean (potential) users of J-PARC. The number of the
participants was 77 (48 participants from Korean and 29 participants
from Japan).
The recent notable publications at MLF neutron science were as
follows,
1) “ Colossal Barocaloric Effect by Large Latent Heat Produced by
First-Order Intersite-Charge-Transfer Transition”
https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202009476
2) “Suppressed Lattice Disorder for Large Emission Enhancement and
Structural Robustness in Hybrid Lead Iodide Perovskite Discovered
by High-Pressure Isotope Effect”
https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202009131
3) “Stabilization of Size-Controlled BaTiO3 Nanocubes via Precise
Solvothermal Crystal Growth and Their Anomalous Surface
Compositional Reconstruction”
https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.0c05878
4)”Development of spin-contrast-variation neutron powder diffractometry
for extracting the structure factor of hydrogen atoms”
https://doi.org/10.1107/S1600576721000303
5)”Chemical-Pressure-Induced Point Defects Enable Low Thermal
Conductivity for Mg2Sn and Mg2Si Single Crystals”
https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaem.1c00670
6) “Anion ordering enables fast H‒ conduction at low temperatures”
https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abf7883
MUSE GOT OFF TO A GOOD START IN FY2021
3) Muon Science Facility (MUSE)
In response to the recent remarks by the Muon Advisory Committee
(MAC) and the International Advisory Committee (IAC) of J-PARC, the
Muon Section will receive a budget for the production of a new muon
target from the new fiscal year. The project will be carried out over
a period of two years, with the target storage container to be
fabricated in the first year and the rotating target body in the
second year. This is because it is necessary to reexamine the
applicability of the Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP) technique in advance,
which is the key to target fabrication. Regarding another issue of
the persistent manpower shortage raised by the MAC, a new recruitment
of assistant professor (female quota) was approved by KEK in March,
and the final approval was given at the IMSS Management Committee
held in May for the hiring of the candidate selected by the Personnel
Committee. The new appointment will be effective on August 1st.
With regard to Inter-University Research Programs, MUSE has made
a beam schedule to minimize the impact of COVID-19 by concentrating
the implementation of overseas user proposals in the latter half of
2021A period (till mid-July). However, the current situation still does
not allow us to see prospects of oversea users finding way to Japan.
Although the MLF has been discussing the possibility of remote
experiment since the end of last year, there are many issues to be
considered prior to institutionalizing and operating it immediately.
The impact of COVID-19 was felt by the radiation regulatory
administration, and the review of facility modifications including
those for MUSE by the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) was prolonged
for many months. However, the permission from the NRA has recently
been obtained, and after prior approvals from JAEA and the surrounding
municipalities, it is expected that the modification work will be possible
shortly. Now we may have a chance of getting the first beam out to the
S2 area within the 2021A period.
Meanwhile, in this proposal round, MUSE received 73 muon proposals
for the 2021B periods, and the review process for these proposals is
now underway.
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5. [Nuclear Transmutation Division] by Hayanori TAKEI
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TWO WORKSHOPS ON J-PARC’S IRRADIATION FACILITY WERE HELD BY THE
NUCLEAR TRANSMUTATION DIVISION
The workshop entitled “Possibilities of Material Irradiation
Facility with High Power Accelerator” was held on March 30th, 2021
using the meeting tool “Zoom”, and 80 researchers participated in it.
The J-PARC’s irradiation facility plan, needs for the irradiation data,
and the current status of domestic and foreign irradiation facilities
were reported. It was also discussed that there are many young
researchers who have little experience in irradiation tests due to
the lack of irradiation facilities, and therefore the needs for
irradiation facilities are extremely high.
Another workshop entitled “Development of the semiconductor
soft error research at J-PARC” was held on March 31st, 2021 using
the Zoom, and 66 researchers participated in it. The current status
of the soft error research by cosmic rays and the irradiation plan
for the soft error at J-PARC were reported. The necessity of
irradiation tests not only for the device itself but also for the
entire system, the importance of industry-academia collaboration,
and increasing the awareness of soft errors were also discussed.
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6. [Safety Division] by Yoshihiro NAKANE and Kotaro BESSHO
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THE PERIODICAL INSPECTION WAS SUCCESSFULLY CONDUCTED BY THE
RADIATION MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE, INC. (RAMI)
The periodical inspection was successfully conducted and the
certificate was issued on March 30th by RAMI. The periodic inspection
is taken once every five years to make sure that radiation installations
are maintained in compliance with technical standards by the Radiation
Regulation Law.
J-PARC SAFETY DAY 2021
The J-PARC Center had held "the J-PARC Safety Day" around May
23rd on which the radioactive material leak incident occurred in 2013.
The Safety Day in FY2021 was held on May 28th by online meeting.
Some good-practices were awarded by the director, and work management
at the RCS facility was introduced. Following these programs, the main
talk entitled "Assertion culture supporting safety at the engineering
and maintenance department, ANA" was given by Mr. Satoru Nabeshima,
ALL NIPPON AIRWAYS CO., LTD. Further an updated video documentation
on the radioactive material leak incident in 2013 was presented.
THE APPLICATION FOR A LICENSE OF THE OPERATION WAS GRANTED
The application for changes of the radiological license was
granted by the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) on June 9. The
approved changes in the application were a new and a modified muon
beamlines in the Materials and Life Science Experimental Facility and
an expansion of the drainage equipment in the Neutrino Experimental
Facility.
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7. [Editorial Note]
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Past issues are available from the below link.
http://j-parc.jp/c/en/topics/project-newsletter/index.html
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Editorial Board:
Toshifumi TSUKAMOTO (Chair): toshifumi.tsukamoto@kek.jp
Kaoru SHIBATA: shibata.kaoru@ jaea.go.jp
Takatoshi MORISHITA: morishita.takatoshi@jaea.go.jp
Dick MISCHKE (English Editor): mischke@triumf.ca
Keiko NEMOTO (Secretary): nemoto.keiko@jaea.go.jp
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