VAMOS: A variable mode high acceptance spectrometer for identifying reaction products induced by SPIRAL beams

The study of reactions induced by the SPIRAL beams at GANIL requires new techniques: the low intensity of secondary beams implies the need of a very high efficiency detection system; the study of nearly or completely unknown nuclei, over a wide range of masses and energies, needs a very efficient method for attributing a reaction product to a nucleus. The variable mode high acceptance spectrometer VAMOS is being designed and built especially for this purpose.