A new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will support a unique collaboration between two of the world’s foremost nuclear science facilities on opposite sides of the globe.

The MoU strengthens the partnership between the Research School of Physics and the Heavy Ion Accelerators (HIA) and the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) at Michigan State University (MSU) in the United States (US).

The agreement formalises a long-standing collaboration supporting joint research, as well as academic, technical staff and student exchanges. 

The MoU will strengthen heavy ion accelerator infrastructure through sharing of expertise in accelerator physics and engineering, ensuring the ANU-based Heavy Ion Accelerator Facility (HIAF) —funded through the Australian Government’s National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS)—remains world-class.

It will also deepen collaboration on the testing of spacecraft electronics and materials, supporting the growth of Australia’s space industry.

The MoU also paves the way for expanded industry engagement, particularly in space radiation effects testing, and strengthens future research and exchange opportunities between Australia and the US.

The two laboratories have been working together for well over a decade. 

A significant example of the exchange occurred in 2013, when a group of MSU researchers travelled halfway around the world to do a set of experiments at ANU. 

Despite being from a world-leading nuclear physics facility, the best place for the experiments they needed—studying a series of closely-related chromium nuclei with different numbers of neutrons—was at HIAF.

They needed HIAF’s combination of a high-energy beam, and the world’s most precise collision detector, called CUBE, plus the expertise of the researchers and technicians who know how to run it.    

The experiments were a success and a paper was published, inspiring more regular traffic of students and staff between HIAF and FRIB (the successor to the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory).

Since then there have been numerous visits by more than a dozen individuals, and three MSU PhD students have taken all their data at HIAF.    

Dr Kaitlin Cook says the complementarity between the two facilities is what has made for such a fruitful collaboration. 

“FRIB is the world’s highest power accelerator of radioactive ions, where HIAF excels in experiments with stable isotopes: from the lightest, hydrogen, up to lead,” she said. 

The partnership spans key areas including fission and quasifission research, nuclear structure and reactions with rare isotope beams, accelerator science, and space radiation.

Scientists at HIA and FRIB are currently working together to develop a new fission spectrometer at FRIB, enabling world-first mass–angle distribution measurements of fission and quasifission with rare isotope beams.

ANU staff and students are also leading the analysis of an experiment performed with the FRIB Decay Station Initiator last year.

The next collaborative project is looking at the collisions that make superheavy elements, through fusion. Or rather, that almost make superheavies, but instead break apart after connecting briefly, a process called quasi-fission. 

A big goal of superheavy element research is to make more neutron-rich superheavy isotopes - thought to be much more stable than those discovered so far. But to make them, you need to use more neutron-rich isotope beams, which are radioactive. 

Hence a collaboration, measuring reactions with stable isotopes at ANU, and comparing to reactions with unstable isotopes at FRIB is beneficial, says Dr Cook. 

“Doing mixed stable-radioactive beam experiments allows us to really push the state of the art forward, it gives us fundamental physical understanding. 

“With a radioactive beam, we can go way out away from stability, with lots of neutrons—it’s never been possible before. Will the success of fusion go right up? 

“FRIB have a wider palette of isotopes, but, because their beams are radioactive, their intensity is close to a million times lower than ours, so their measurements can never have as high statistics.  

“We have a beam that is intense, and precisely located in energy, time and position. And CUBE is the best detector in the world for doing this: our measurements are at the frontier of precision. 

“This collaboration is an important way to push forward on how to make superheavies.” 

The collaboration will give Australian students at HIAF an education at the centre of cutting-edge science, Dr Cook says. 

“That’s a great opportunity—but more importantly, the data we will obtain will be important education for the worldwide nuclear community.”