{"id":84622,"date":"2023-06-26T14:26:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-26T12:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aktuelles.uni-frankfurt.de\/?p=84622"},"modified":"2025-07-03T12:20:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T10:20:13","slug":"tracking-down-heavy-elements-with-recycled-energy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aktuelles.uni-frankfurt.de\/en\/english\/tracking-down-heavy-elements-with-recycled-energy\/","title":{"rendered":"Tracking down heavy elements with recycled energy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The superconducting accelerator in Darmstadt<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/span>
\n

<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n

The electrons are released from a hot metal plate under high voltage in a thermionic electron source. Foto: Jan-Christoph Hartung<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

At the electron accelerator in Darmstadt, physicists are studying in the laboratory aspects of the extreme conditions in our Universe. In the process, they have successfully developed an efficient technology that reuses energy for particle acceleration. The particle accelerator plays a key role in the ELEMENTS cluster project led jointly by Goethe University Frankfurt and the Technical University of Darmstadt.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

If you walk across the Stadtmitte campus of the Technical University of Darmstadt, the Institute for Nuclear Physics is not particularly impressive at first glance. A grey building from the 1950s, bare concrete, a lot of windows. Inside, linoleum flooring and rows of identical doors. Behind one of these doors, however, is an imposing room with lots of monitors and control panels, their countless lights and switches reminiscent of a science fiction film from the last century. It is both the control room and the entrance to a huge facility located in the institute\u2019s basement. You must go down a fleet of stairs then venture through a concrete door weighing 15 tons \u2013 and are rewarded with an awe-inspiring sight: a vast hall full of technical apparatus, stainless steel tubes and cables. It houses the \u201cSuperconducting Darmstadt Linear Accelerator\u201d, in short S-DALINAC, which was once Europe\u2019s first recirculating superconducting linear accelerator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It went into operation in 1991, and since then above all young researchers have been working continuously on its further development. Only recently, for example, they achieved a phenomenal breakthrough in accelerator physics: the reuse of energy by utilizing the main accelerator several times. Norbert Pietralla, the institute\u2019s director, explains: \u201cWith this multi-stage energy recovery mode, we are able to save vast amounts of energy required for powering the particle acceleration. Normally, well under 1 percent of the accelerated electrons participate in scientifically interesting reactions, and in effect we throw the rest away, together with the energy in them. By contrast, the new technology allows us to reuse this energy by decelerating the particles again, much like in a car with a hybrid engine.\u201d Pietralla, who hails from the Rhineland, would never have dreamt this possible when he took up his post at the Technical University of Darmstadt in 2006.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
IN A NUTSHELL<\/h5>\n\n\n\n