School on Polarized Neutron Physics

"The IX School on Polarized Neutron Physics "FPN-2020" was held in a hybird format (online and offline) on 10-11 December 2020.

FPN-2020_thumbnail.jpg

III School Simulation methods of instrument design

On December 10 and 11, 2020, the IX School on Physics Polarized Neutrons "FPN-2020" was held on the basis of the National Research Center "Kurchatov Institute" - PNPI. In this difficult year the school was held in two formats: full-time (with a limited number of participants at the same time, in the conference hall of Bldg. 7) and in online format.

The School on Polarized Neutron Physics has been held annually at the Kurchatov Institute - PNPI since 2012, and is associated with the names of Gilyari Moiseevich Drabkin and Sergei Vladimirovich Maleev. For many years, these two outstanding scientists were the organizers and inspirers of condensed matter research at our institute, mainly with the help of polarized neutrons. The created experimental and theoretical groundwork still inspires scientists, uniting the efforts of the Condensed Matter Research Department and the Solid State Physics Sector of the Theoretical Physics Department of the Kurchatov Institute - PNPI.

The FPN-2020 School is designed to activate the activities of the Russian scientific community in the field of research using polarized neutrons and to attract young people to research activities. This year, about 50 people took part in the work of the school.

The first day of the School keep the tradition of the reports of those participants who successfully defended their Ph.D. theses: in the past year in chemistry and physics. Thus, we have got two more Philosophy Doctors in the Condensed Matter Research Department. The focus of the School was on the topical problems in the physics of polarized neutrons and how experiments on small-angle scattering (SAS) and polarized neutron reflectometry can solve them. Ferromagnets with the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction have become one of these problems for 4 decades already. To solve this problem, an important role had been played by a special research method - measuring the spin-wave stiffness of ferromagnets and helimagnets using a SAS of polarized neutron developed at PNPI back in the 1980s. Young scientists made a whole series of reports in which research was carried out on the basis of this method.

In addition, several reports were devoted to the installations of polarized neutrons (reflectometers and the SESANS setup), which are currently being created at the PIK reactor for carrying out unique experiments.

On the second day of the meeting, the participants discussed experiments using polarized neutron diffraction. A special topic at the School was the reports on the phenomenon of nuclear magnetic interference in the scattering of polarized neutrons. Traditionally, the school presented reports on the development of a compact neutron source project based on the proton accelerator - DARIA. The session devoted to instruments and technology showed the necessity to follow the latest achievements in the field of polarized neutrons.

The FPN-2020 School is an event within CREMLINplus WP 3 [Collaboration with PIK], Task [Task 3.7: Instrument specific education and training programs for engineers and scientists.]

Lead beneficiary: [FZJ]. Related CREMLINplus Deliverable: [MS3.1 Plan for the workshops and schools, dissemination level: public]