A. V. Averyanov

Time-Projection Chamber for the MPD NICA project

The Time-Projection Chamber (TPC) is the main device for tracking and identification of charged particles in the MPD experiment at the NICA collider. The article presents the design consideration of this detector for registration of central Au-Au collisions at energies up to 11 Gev/c and NICA event rate of 5 kHz. The status of the TPC construction and features of its main parts (field cage, read-out chambers, front end electronics, gas and cooling systems, laser-calibration) are described.

Studying of hypernuclei with nuclotron beams

A spectrometer is created to study relativistic hypernuclei produced with beams of accelerated nuclei from the Nuclotron facility (Dubna, JINR). Test runs have been carried out and the conclusion is drawn that the properties of the facility meet the requirements of the task of searching for unknown and studying poorly known neutron-rich hypernuclei.

Relativistic hypernuclei at Dubna

At the Laboratory of High Energies (JINR, Dubna) a unique approach was elaborated with hypernuclei produced by the excitation of the beam nuclei and their decays observed at a distance of tens of cm behind the production target. While the very first experiments were carried out in the Synchrophasotron beams, more extensive hypernuclei research programme is planned for the Nuclotron accelerator and the new spectrometer created by the authors. At the time of the conference the first test run in the Nuclotron beam was in progress. Investigation of hydrogen hypernuclei isotopes is in the first line of the experimental research plans. Namely, lifetimes and production cross sections of Λ 4 H and Λ 3 H will be measured. Search for Λ 6 H is also among the tasks.

Readout system of TPC/MPD NICA project

The time-projection chamber (TPC) is the main tracking detector in the MPD/NICA. The information on charge-particle tracks in the TPC is registered by the MWPG with cathode pad readout. The frontend electronics (FEE) are developed with use of modern technologies such as application specific integrated circuits (ASIC), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA), and data transfer to a concentrator via a fast optical interface. The main parameters of the FEE are as follows: total number of channels, ~95 000; data stream from the whole TPC, 5 GB/s; low power consumption, less than 100 mW/ch; signal to noise ratio (S/N), 30; equivalent noise charge (ENC), <1000e– (Cin = 10–20 pF); and zero suppression (pad signal rejection ~90%). The article presents the status of the readout chamber construction and the data acquisition system. The results of testing FEE prototypes are presented.

First results on the measurements of the proton beam polarization at internal target at Nuclotron1

The spin program at NICA using SPD and MPD requires high intensity polarized proton beam with high value of the beam polarization. First results on the measurements of the proton beam polarization performed at internal target at Nuclotron are reported. The polarization of the proton beam provided by new source of polarized ions has been measured at 500 MeV using quasielastic proton-proton scattering and DSS setup at internal target. The obtained value of the vertical polarization of ~35 % is consistent with the calculations taking into account the current magnetic optics of the Nuclotron injection line.

Measurement of the deuteron beam polarization at internal target at Nuclotron for DSS experiment

The current deuteron beam polarimetry at Nuclotron is provided by the Internal Target polarimeter based on the use of the asymmetry in dp- elastic scattering at large angles in the cms at 270 MeV. The upgraded deuteron beam polarimeter has been used obtain the vector and tensor polarization during 2016/2017 runs for the DSS experimental program. The polarimeter has been used also for tuning of the polarized ion source parameters for 6 different spin modes.

TPC status for MPD experiment of NICA project

In a frame of the JINR scientific program on study of hot and dense baryonic matter a new accelerator complex Ion Collider fAcility (NICA) based on the Nuclotron-M is under realization. It will operate at luminosity up to 1027 cm−2s−1 for Au79+ ions. Two interaction points are foreseen at NICA for two detectors which will operate simultaneously. One of these detectors, the Multi-Purpose Detector (MPD), is optimized for investigations of heavy-ion collisions. The Time-Projection Chamber (TPC) is the main tracking detector of the MPD central barrel. It is a well-known detector for 3-dimensional tracking and particle identification for high multiplicity events. The conceptual layout of MPD and detailed description of the design and main working parameters of TPC, the readout system based on MWPC and readout electronics as well as the TPC subsystems and tooling for assembling and integration TPC into MPD are presented.

Trigger for Experiment with Hypernuclei

The hypernuclear program at Dubna was started in 1988 with investigation of the light hypernuclei production and decay. Nowadays we are planning to measure lifetime and cross section of Λ3H and Λ4H hypernuclei.