Eur. Phys. J. A (2014) 50: 8
https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2014-14008-y

Regular Article - Experimental Physics

MINOS: A vertex tracker coupled to a thick liquid-hydrogen target for in-beam spectroscopy of exotic nuclei

¹ CEA, Centre de Saclay, IRFU, F-91191, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
² RIKEN Nishina Center, 2-1 Hirosawa, 351-0198, Wako, Saitama, Japan

^* e-mail: alexandre.obertelli@cea.fr

Received: 28 October 2013
Revised: 14 January 2014
Accepted: 20 January 2014
Published online: 30 January 2014

Abstract

MINOS is a new apparatus dedicated to in-beam nuclear structure experiments with low-intensity exotic beams in inverse kinematics at intermediate energies above 150MeV/nucleon. The device is composed of a thick liquid-hydrogen target coupled to a compact time projection chamber (TPC) serving as a vertex tracker. Either used for in-beam gamma spectroscopy of bound excited states or invariant-mass spectroscopy of unbound states, MINOS aims at improving the luminosity by a very significant factor compared to standard solid-target material experiments while improving experimental resolutions.