A Monte Carlo code to optimize the production of Radioactive Ion Beams by the ISOL technique

Currently the nuclear chart includes around 3000 nuclides, distributed as ${\beta}^+$, ${\beta}^-$ and $\alpha$-emitters, stable and spontaneously fissioning isotopes. A similar amount of unknown nuclei belongs to the so-called \textit{terra incognita}, the uncertain region contained also within the proton, neutron and (fast) fission driplines and thereby stable against nucleon emission. The exploration of this zone is to be assisted by the use of radioactive ion beams (RIB) and could provide a new understanding of several nuclear properties. Moreover, besides pointing at crucial questions such as the validity of the shell model, the dilute matter and the halo structure, challenging experiments outside nuclear physics are also attended, e.g., explanations of the nucleosythesis processes that may justify why the matter in the universe has evolved to present proportions of elements, and which represents a major challenge to nuclear physics. These, together with other fascinating research lines in particle physics, solid state physics and medicine, demand utterly exotic and intense ion beams for which a global optimization of all relevant phenomena in beam formation has to be coherently conducted. As a response to this request, a Monte Carlo simulation code has been written, to integrate diffusion and effusion under various pressure flows and conditions, including the transport through continuous media and enabling diffractive and surface dependent effects, emulating ionization in surface and plasma ion sources and, finally, reproducing the movement of ions under electro-magnetic fields.