China launches high intensity low energy heavy-ion beam facility

A picture of a part of the facility in Lanzhou, Gansu province. Zhao Hongwei, the project's chief scientist and an academician with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said LEAF's advanced capabilities allow it to produce intense, high-charge-state beams of elements ranging from light to heavy. "LEAF holds broad application prospects in frontier interdisciplinary research fields, such as atomic physics, nuclear astrophysics and nuclear energy materials," Zhao said. "According to prevailing scientific theories, the Big Bang primarily produced hydrogen, helium, and trace amounts of lithium. Understanding these processes is a key focus of nuclear astrophysics," said Tang Xiaodong, a researcher at the Institute of Modern Physics.