Lothar Buchmann

604-222-7403
Senior Research Scientist - TRIUMF
Group Member

Lothar Buchmann gained his diploma (`master') in 1979 and his PhD in 1984 at the University of Münster within the astrophysics group of Prof. Claus Rolfs. His PhD thesis was the first study of the ²⁶Al(p,gamma)²⁷Si reaction rate at stellar energies and beyond. Lothar then came to TRIUMF as a joint research associate with the University of Toronto in the group of Dick Azuma. His posdoc experience included work on the MR-spectrometer, pion scattering and building the TISOL isotope seperator. In 1988 Lothar became a TRIUMF Research Scientist and became involved in the development of a continuous wave, optically pumped ion source at TRIUMF, and in addition, a nuclear polarimeter for low proton energies usable both at the optically and the Lambshift polarized ion sources based on the ⁶Li(p,³He)a reaction. 

From 1989-2000 Lothar worked at the TISOL isotope separator which continued and resulted in the transition of the separator from a test facility to a facility being able to perform physics experiments. This transition began in the summer of 1989 when the first ECR source at an isotope on-line separator became operational. Using the TISOL facility, Lothar was the principal investigator of a ¹⁶N-decay study employing the ECR source. This study led to the placement of significant restrictions on the low energy p-wave (E1-capture) part of the ¹²C(alpha,gamma)¹⁶O reaction, which dominates the rate at the energies associated with quiescent helium burning in Red Giants. This so called 'TRIUMF-Red Giant' experiment received much press around the world, and is still considered a landmark measurement in the understanding of stellar evolution. The experiment let Lothar to put his nose into low energy scattering theory for which he developed many programs. His expertise has been extended to many other reactions now.

Lothar was one of the principal investigators of a ⁷Be(p,gamma)⁸B study, important in the context of the solar neutrino problem and the new generation of solar neutrino detectors. Lothar led the efforts to prepare a ⁷Be target (in collaboration with the University of Washington together with K. Snover and A. Adelberger). The target part led to the production of a small size metallic ⁷Be target where the ⁷Be was produced at a 13 MeV (TR13) cyclotron at TRIUMF employing a liquid ⁷Li target. The joint TRIUMF-University of Washington measurement of this reaction is considered one of the best determinations of the reaction rate. 

Lothar was a crucial member in the team that steered the specifications for the ISAC facility and instrumentation to ISAC, like DRAGON. He was involved in some of the experiments therein including the TUDA and DRAGON facilities.

At present, Lothar is involved in the deevelopment of two time projection chambers: TACTIC for detecting recoil particles from particle reactions at low velocities and NEURAL, a detector for neutron induced charged particle detections.