NICA (Nuclotron-based Ion Collider fAсility) is a new accelerator complex designed at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (Dubna, Russia) to study properties of dense baryonic matter.
After puting the NICA collider into operation JINR scientists will be able to create in the Laboratory a special state of matter in which our Universe stayed shortly after the Big Bang – the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP).
NICA will provide variety of beam species ranged from protons and polarized deuterons to very massive gold ions. Heavy ions will be accelerated up to kinetic energy of 4.5 GeV per nucleon, the protons – up to 12.6 GeV. The heart of the NICA complex is the upgraded accelerator “Nuclotron” (have being working at JINR from 1993). The two interaction points are foreseen at the NICA collider rings: one for heavy-ion studies with the MPD detector and another for polarized beams for the SPD experiment.
Scientific tasks:
The most important fundamental areas of research in this area are:
* The nature and properties of strong interactions between the elementary components of the Standard Model of Particle Physics – quarks and gluons
* Search for signs of phase transition between hadronic matter and CGP, search for new states of baryonic matter
* The study of the basic properties of strong interaction and KGP symmetry
The NICA complex will provide a wide range of beams: from proton and deuteron beams to beams consisting of heavy ions such as gold nuclei. Heavy nuclei will be accelerated to an energy of up to 4.5 GeV/nucleon, protons – to an energy of 12.6 GeV. The heart of the NICA complex is the modernized Nuclotron accelerator (operating at JINR since 1993). The NICA collider has two interaction points: one for studying heavy ion collisions at the MPD detector, the other for polarized beams for the experiment at the SPD facility.