NSCL, East Lansing, Michigan, USA
Notre Dame University, Notre Dame, Iowa, USA
LBNL, Berkeley, California, USA
FRIB, East Lansing, Michigan, USA
DIANA (Dakota Ion Accelerators for Nuclear Astrophysics) is a next generation nuclear astrophysics accelerator facility proposed to be built as part of the US DUSEL (Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory) project. The scientific goals of DIANA are focused on experiments related to nucleosynthesis processes. Reaction cross-sections at stellar temperature are extremely low, which makes these experiments challenging. Small signal rates are overwhelmed by large background rates associated with cosmic ray-induced reactions, background from natural radioactivity in the laboratory environment, and the beam-induced background on target impurities. By placing the DIANA facility deep underground (1.4 km) the cosmic ray induced background can be eliminated. In addition, the DIANA accelerator is being designed to achieve large laboratory reaction rates by delivering high ion beam currents (up to 100 mA) to a high density super-sonic jet-gas target (up to 1018 atoms/cm2). Two accelerators are coupled to enable measurements over a wide energy range from 30 keV to 3 MeVin a consistent manner. The accelerators design and its technical challenges are presented.
