News 2011

Under the guidance of KVI professor Herbert Löhner, the Groningen team of students Physics and Applied Physics has won the silver medal in the international University Physics Competition.

On 11 November Suresh Saminathan will defend his thesis 'Extraction and transport of ion beams from an ECR ion source'.

After successful commissioning with a radioactive source at KVI in early 2011, the cryogenic ion catcher was tested for the first time in realistic experimental conditions in October 2011 at GSI. The results show that the system works as intended. During this first test ever of a cryogenic ion catcher, a helium gas density several times larger than ever achieved with comparable, but 'warm', ion catchers was used. This is very important given the large energy of the ions to be captured. Further tests with the system are planned for Spring 2012.

The open day on Sunday 30 October brought more the record number of 620 visitors to the KVI.

On 31 October Elmaddin Guliyev will defend his thesis 'Verification of a novel calorimeter studies of Charmonium states'.

The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) has awarded a Veni grant to Stijn Buitink for a three-year research project in astroparticle physics at the KVI. The title of his project is ‘Turning the Moon into a neutrino detector with LOFAR’.

On 14 October Oscar Versolato will defend his thesis 'Laser spectroscopy of trapped Ra⁺ ions: towards a single-ion optical clock'.

This week for the first time a light signal from a laser at the VU University in Amsterdam was measured at KVI. The light was thransported through a fiber link from the Laser Centre in Amsterdam to Groningen. The very precise lasers signals will be used for ultraprecise measurements on fundamental symmetries in atoms and molecules in the framework of the FOM programme 'Broken mirrors and drifting constants'.

On 3 October Gouri Shankar Giri will defend his PhD thesis 'Radium ion spectroscopy towards atomic parity violation in a single trapped ion'.

On 23 September Lotje Wansbeek will defend her thesis 'Atomic parity violation in a single radium ion'.

On 31 August, the proposal for ZFEL, the planned new facility at KVI, was submitted in the NWO round for the National Roadmap for Large-Scale Research Facilities.

On 15 July Jos Postma will defend his thesis 'Interaction dynamics in collisions of ions with molecules and clusters'.

On 8 July Sybren Harmsma will defend his PhD thesis 'Radio signals of cosmic-ray-induced air showers at the Pierre Auger Observatory'.

On 12 May, the Centre for Information Technology ( CIT ) of the University of Groningen has opened the gate to the worldwide IPv6 network for KVI. This rather complex operation was, thanks to the good collaboration with the CIT , performed within a day. Almost all servers at KVI are now also accessible via IPv6, and also at many workplaces IPv6 can be used now. On 17 May, the CIT has also performed the IPv6 routing to KVI redundantly, so that KVI, as the first unit of the University, now fully participates in the worldwide IPv6 network.

On Monday 6 June the kickoff symposium of the new FOM programme 'Broken Mirrors & Drifting Constants' will be held at the VU University in Amsterdam (VUA). At the symposium five guest speakers, among whom Gerard 't Hooft of Utrecht University, and speakers of VUA and KVI will elucidate aspects of the research programme.

With the signing of a collaboration agreement with the medical centre of the VU University in Amsterdam (VUmc), the University Medical Centre Groningen (UMCG) has made the next step in the development of its plans for a proton facility. KVI is involved in this new development due to its collaboration with the UMCG on the plans for a facility for proton therapy and an accompanying research programme.

On 28 Januari Ruud Vinke will defend his thesis 'Time-of-flight PET with SiPM sensors on monolithic scintillation crystals'.

KVI PhD-student Ruud Vinke has won the second prize in the contest of the Dutch Physics Journal (Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Natuurkunde, NTvN). The prize, an amount of €750, will be given at the annual meeting of the Dutch Physical Society, Fysica 2011, on 15 April 2011 in Amsterdam. The article will be inserted in the April issue of NTvN.

KVI-scientist Steven Hoekstra has scored in the ‘projectruimte’ of the FOM Foundation with an application for research on broken mirror symmetry in ultra-cold molecules. For this four-year project a PhD-position (OIO), a budget of k€ 60 and k€ 100 investment money have been supplied.