Applied Nuclear Physics at Accelerators

About this Research Topic

Background

Applied nuclear physics has a wide impact on our society and the research in this field is continuously growing. New facilities are currently under construction in Europe, Asia, and the USA offering beam features, such increased intensity, high energy or radioactive ion beams, which enable the exploration of new research avenues ranging from biomedical applications to material science, new therapy approaches up to space radiation research.

Cancer therapy in particular will greatly benefit from the opportunities provided by new facilities like FAIR, NICA, RAON, ELI or SPES, where new techniques such as particle radiography, radioactive beam imaging, ultra-high dose rates therapy and particle therapy with new ions can be explored.

In this Research Topic, the Topic Editors aim to collect papers connected to the biophysics and biomedical research in such new facilities. At large, this Research Topic is mapped on the activity of the International Biophysics Collaboration. This collaboration was recently established with the aim to coordinate the activity of the large international community that works in this field.

The landscape of the treated subject is very wide: a non-exhaustive list includes, on top of new particle therapy approaches, radiobiology, dosimetry and space radiation research. Perspectives on the applications of radioactive beams and high intensities beams are also included in the issue, so to provide a updated report of recent research advances.

The cover image is an aerial view of GSI and FAIR accelerators in Darmstadt, taken in May 2019. Photo: D. Fehrenz/GSI/FAIR

Keywords: Nuclear physics, Accelerators, Applied physics, Medical physics, Biophysics

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