CERN Accelerating science

Through the advent of post-accelerated beams with REX-ISOLDE at
CERN, probing nuclear properties using transfer reactions and Coulomb
excitation of exotic nuclear species is now possible. REX ISOLDE currently
provides beams of energy 2.2 MeV/u (soon be upgraded to 3.1 MeV/u)
into the gamma-ray MINIBALL array, and other instrumentation, at the
secondary target position. Examples of research topics currently addressed
using REX are presented. Scheduled energy up-grades will increase the
physics potential even further. The goal for the next five years will be to
accelerate ions up to 5 MeV/A and higher energies. Increase of primary
beam intensity will also be achieved in a phased approach, with a significant
enhancement provided by the proposed Superconducting Proton Linac as
the primary accelerator.