Equipment destined for a new project at JINR, Dubna, has been shipped from CERN. A tracking detector manufactured by the NA48 collaboration at CERN will be used in the Multipurpose Detector (MPD) in the Nuclotron-based Ion Collider Facility (NICA), which is aimed at studying maximally high baryonic densities.
The shipment marks the beginning of a renewed partnership between the two international physics centres within the context of a new co-operation agreement, which was signed in January. The previous co-operation agreement, which had been in force since 1992, defined the participation of JINR’s scientists and specialists in the research programme carried out at CERN. The new agreement introduces more symmetry into the relationship, with mutual participation in the research programmes of both laboratories. In particular, it foresees the help of experts from CERN in the realization of JINR’s research programme.
JINR has contributed for almost two decades to the construction of the accelerator and detectors for the LHC project, which is now successfully completed, with data-taking and data analysis underway. In the meantime JINR has developed its own exciting research programme. This programme will renew JINR’s experimental base, and CERN will help with its expertise in accelerator and detector technology.
The NICA/MPD project was initiated by former director of JINR, Alexei Sissakian, who sadly passed away on 1 May. The studies of hot and dense baryonic matter at the facility, together with the search for the quark-hadron mixed phase, could make Dubna one of the most attractive centres in this domain, together with GSI and Brookhaven.
The equipment transported to Dubna in July consists of a tracking detector, which includes four drift chambers with a diameter of 2.6 m – optimal for use as end-cap tracking systems in the MPD as well as for the future Spin Physics Detector. It was shipped together with data read-out electronics.
