The Bellotti Ion Beam Facility (IBF), a deep underground "user facility" open to proposals by external research groups. The facility is entitled to Enrico Bellotti, the first director of the Gran Sasso National Laboratories, has been inaugurated in October 2023 (https://www.lngs.infn.it/en/news/inaugurazione-ibf). Thanks to its location inside the deep underground laboratories of LNGS, it allows to perform experiments with ion beams in an environment characterized by a cosmic radiation flux reduced by a million compared to a laboratory on the Earth's surface. Therefore, this facility opens new frontiers not only in the field of nuclear astrophysics and nuclear physics, but also in applied sciences.
The workhorse of the Bellotti IBF is a 3.5 MV Singletron accelerator. The machine was funded as part of an "Award Project" by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR). The project originated from a proposal of the LUNA Collaboration [1], which has been carrying out research with accelerators (LUNA 50kV, LUNA 400kV [2]) at LNGS underground laboratories since more than 20 years.
More details on the facility and its scientific potential can be found in [3] and [4].
Main Parameters of the 3.5MV Singletron accelerator
Calls for experiments at the Bellotti IBF are issued each year.
The 1st call for proposals of experiments with the 3.5 MV Accelerator of the Bellotti Ion Beam Facility was successfully closed on October, 30 2023.
The 2nd call for proposals will be published in summer 2024. Further details will be made available on this page along with the publication of the call for proposals.
The proposals will be evaluated by the Program Advisory Committee (PAC) established within the LNGS Scientific Committee (https://www.lngs.infn.it/en/scientific-committee).
Currently, the PAC is composed of:
Giacomo Cuttone – Chair (INFN-Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Catania, Italy)
Faïrouz Hammache ( IJCLab – Orsay, France)
Jordi Josè (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) BarcelonaTech, Spain)
The technical management of the accelerator is assigned to the Accelerator Service specifically established within the LNGS Research Division.
[1] A High Intensity, High Stability 3.5 MV Singletron™ accelerator, A. Sen , G. Domínguez-Cañizares, N.C. Podaru, .J.W. Mous, M. Junker , G. Imbriani, V. Rigato; Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B 2019; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nimb.2018.09.016
[2] LUNA Collaboration Web Page: https://luna.lngs.infn.it
[3] The LUNA II accelerator A. Formicola, G. Imbriani, M. Junker et al; Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A 2003; DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/s0168-9002(03)01435-9
[4] Underground Ion Beam Facility close to inauguration at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso – Italy, Appecc news, https://www.appec.org/news/underground-ground-ion-beam-facility-close-to-inauguration-at-laboratori-nazionali-del-gran-sasso-italy
[5] Underground Ion Beam Facility close to inauguration at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso – Italy, Appecc news, https://www.appec.org/news/underground-ground-ion-beam-facility-close-to-inauguration-at-laboratori-nazionali-del-gran-sasso-italy