Abstract : The new separator-spectrometer combination S3, presently under
construction at the new SPIRAL2 facility of GANIL, Caen, France, together with the
high intensity beams of SPIRAL 2’s SC LINAC, will offer exciting perspectives for a
wide spectrum of nuclear and atomic physics topics. Among the mayor features to be
studied, apart from nuclei in the N=Z region, nuclei of astrophysical relevance and
some atomic physics issues, are the properties of the heaviest nuclei (superheavy
nuclei – SHN). The installation is designed to employ nuclear physics methods like
decay spectroscopy after separation or atomic physics methods like laser
spectroscopy and mass measurements.
The nuclear physics studies will include particle and photon correlation studies,
attacking the open questions in the field, which have been revealed in earlier studies
at facilities like e.g. GSI with the velocity filter SHIP and the gas-filled separator
TASCA, Jyväskylä with RITU and its numerous auxiliary detection set-ups, the
DGFRS and VASSILISSA/SHELS separators at FLNR/JINR in Dubna etc. The
research subjects include K-isomers, isotopic and isotonic trends of low lying nuclear
excitations and $\gamma$-electron-$\alpha$ and $\gamma-electron-fission coincidences. The detection array
SUIRIUS at the focal plane of S3, presently being developed for this purpose, is also
an ideal tool to study delayed processes like isomeric states and β-delayed fission. A
low energy set-up including a gas stopping cell, laser spectroscopy instrumentation
and a multi-reflection time-of-flight spectrometer, will be used to study nuclei in the
N=Z region as well as the heaviest nuclear species. In a farer future the synthesis
and investigation of, also so far unknown, highest-Z systems is envisaged, for which
the earlier experiments will produce the basis.
The state of the art of the SHN spectroscopy will be presented and an outline for the
physics program at S3 will be given in this presentation.
