DNP 2023 - March 2024

Several members of the MoNA Collaboration attended the 6th joint meeting between the American Physical Society Division of Nuclear Physics (APS/DNP) and the Physical Society of Japan (JPS), which was held on November 26-December 1, 2023 at the Hilton Waikoloa Village, on Hawaii's Big Island.

The MoNA Collaboration at the 2023 APS/DNP (Left) and the 2023 Physicists Inspiring the Next Generation (Right).

A total of 20 oral and poster presentations on MoNA-related science or by a member of the MoNA Collaboration were delivered throughout the meeting, covering a wide range of topics that included new detector technologies for radioactive isotope beam facilities, multi-neutron systems, novel materials and manufacturing processes for nuclear physics detectors, nuclear reaction, applications of advanced statistics and machine learning methods in nuclear physics, nuclear structure and fission studies, super heavy elements and fission, and instrumentation for targets and sources, low energy particle detectors and particle tracking, as well as in education and outreach. The list of oral and poster presentations on MoNA related science and education at the 2023 APS/DNP meeting is provided below.

Session	Presentation Title (hover over the title to access the abstract)
3WEB.00001	Multi-neutron experiments with MoNA-LISA
C03.00007	Characterization of large band gap semiconductors for a Cherenkov radiator at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams
C04.00001	Comparison of the projectile fragmentation reaction in GEANT4 against EPAX formula for rare isotopes studies
C08.00004	Testing neural networks for classifying multi-neutron decay measurements of neutron-unbound systems
D10.00005	Locating the first p1/2- state in 13Be
DB02.00031	Angular Distributions of High Energy Neutrons Scattered off a Plastic Scintillator
DB02.00033	Rutherford scattering based detector for the MoNA Collaboration
F07.00008	Status of the Multi-layer Active target for MoNA Experiment (MAME)
G01.00005	The 2022 Parents of IsOtopes for the Next Generation
L07.00001	Measurements of Neutron Scattering from Carbon Using a Diamond Detector
L07.00002	Developing a Next-Generation Neutron Detector
L07.00008	Optimization of a timing scintillator for the MoNA-Sweeper setup at FRIB
L10.00003	Simulations of Neutron Unbound Physics for Geant4
M05.00003	The 2023 Physicists Inspiring the Next Generation: Exploring the Nuclear Matter
M07.00010	Optimizing the MoNA Sweeper ion-optical transfer matrix for enhanced energy and angular resolution

TUNL Neutron Beam Experiments

A group of 12 researchers from the MoNA Collaboration, including 5 undergraduate and 2 graduate students, recently visited the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory (TUNL) at Duke University in Durham, NC. The team used an 11-MeV neutron beam from TUNL's tandem accelerator to test prototype neutron detectors. The team had excellent local support by Sean Finch, Forrest Friesen, and Michelle Riemann.

The detectors were built from test kits at Augustana College, Davidson College, Hope College, James Madison University, Michigan State University, and Virginia State University, and consist of plastic scintillators and various configurations of SiPM arrays. Different types of optical coupling and reflective wrapping were used. The collected data will be used in benchmarking current neutron detector simulation tools and play an important role in developing the next generation neutron detector, which was recently approved for funding by the National Science Foundation [https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2320400].

Professor Frank positions a SiPM based detector module for testing.

Closeup of a test module

Students, faculty, and staff involved in the TUNL run

Los Alamos experiments

Members of the MoNA collaboration went to the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) July 24-28, 2023 to help prepare for an upcoming experiment to better understand neutron scattering and detection. The group consisted of participants from Davidson College, Indiana Wesleyan University, Michigan State University, and Virginia State University.

The group stands in front of the replica Main Gate from Manhattan Project era