IKO BOL project


Nuclear detection system 'BOL' for coincidence measurements.

For a detailed investigation of the structure of atomic nuclei, a measurement system was built at the Institute for Nuclear Physics Research (IKO/Amsterdam), to be used in conjunction with the institute's synchro-cyclotron¹.
The central part of this system was a configuration of 64 detectors arranged spherically around the cyclotron beam's target. Mass number, energy, angular direction and coincidence data were collected using advanced electronics, together with an arrangement of mini- and mainframe computers.
The listed selection² of papers (most of them in Dutch) represents an interesting early example of the application of large-scale on-line computing in physics research. Not only the technical details, also the organizational and financial aspects are of historical interest.