Extreme Light Infrastructure–Nuclear Physics (ELI–NP): New Horizons for Photon Physics in Europe

摘要

The European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) and its roadmap [1] aim to integrate national resources into a common, pan-European effort. Currently the ESFRI roadmap, first issued in 2006 and updated in 2008, lists 43 largescale projects selected from all science and engineering areas. Under the 7th Framework Programme the European Commission has funded the preparatory phases for 34 projects included in the 2006 ESFRI roadmap. In the area of physical sciences besides the two radioactive beam facilities FAIR (at GSI/Germany) and SPIRAL2 (at GANIL/France) also the project “Extreme Light Infrastructure”(ELI) [2] was selected. Already one year before the end of ELI’s 7th Framework Preparatory Phase a decision was made in October 2009 to implement ELI as a joint European consortium of 17 nations consisting of three laser facilities that will be consolidated under the joint ELI project. The prime objective is to build a unified infrastructure based on three mutually supporting pillars.