Megaproject NICA

The mega-science “NICA Complex” project is being implemented at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in accordance with the Institute’s development plans and the Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation (RF) and the International Intergovernmental Research Organization Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) on the construction and operation of a complex of superconducting rings on colliding beams of heavy ions NICA – NICA Complex [PDF]. Works on the construction of the basic configuration of the NICA Complex project is carried out in all its facilities in accordance with the Agreement using the approved JINR budget funds, target funds of the RF received by JINR in 2016–2019 in accordance with the Agreement and its expansion as part of the Russian Federal project «Development of advanced infrastructure for research and development in the Russian Federation» of the national project Russian Federation "Science", as well as the contributions of other project participants.

The basic configuration of the “NICA Complex” project will make it possible to accelerate and collide heavy ions, up to gold ions, in the optimal energy range, from the minimum — in the zone of extracted beams, to the most achievable √s_NN = 11 GeV (for Au⁺⁷⁹, in the nucleon-nucleon center of mass system) at the collider, with an average luminosity of L = 10²⁷ cm^-2s^-1, which will allows to study nuclear matter in a state of maximum baryonic density, inaccessible to research in other laboratories of the world.

In addition, the collisions of protons and deuterons with longitudinal and transverse polarization in the energy range up to √s_NN = 27 GeV and √s_NN = 12.6 GeV, respectively, with luminosities up to 10³² cm^-2s^-1, will be available at the Collider. These conditions will provide priority in the field of the nucleon spin structure research and clarification of the most important questions of the spin origin.

Updated passport of the “NICA Complex” project is available here

FULL REPORT as of 01/01/2020