Status of the mega-science project NICA

A Taranenko

doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1685/1/012021

Abstract

The Mega-Science project NICA (Nuclotron-based Ion Collider fAcility) is under construction at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna (Russia). This is the first international mega-science project which will be build on the territory of the Russian Federation. The heavy ion programme at NICA includes two planned detector systems: the Baryonic Matter at Nuclotron (BM@N) and the Multi-Purpose Detector (MPD). The mission of future experiments at NICA is to explore the phase diagram of QCD matter at collision energies, where the highest net-baryon densities will be created. The perspectives for the experiments at NICA and the designed physics performance of the detector components will be presented and discussed.

Highlights

The mega-science Nuclotron based Heavy Ion Collider fAcility (NICA) Complex project is being implemented at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR), Dubna, Russia in accordance with the Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation (RF) and the JINR on the construction and operation of a complex of superconducting rings on colliding beams of heavy ions NICA Complex [1]
NICA Accelerator Complex covers the energy range where the highest net-baryon densities can be created in laboratory experiments
This offers the unique opportunity to produce and to study QCD matter at neutron star core densities, and to address fundamental questions related to the phase structure of strongly interacting matter, to confinement and chiral symmetry

Summary

Introduction

The mission of future experiments with collisions of relativistic heavy-ions at NICA is to explore the phase diagram of QCD matter at collision energies, where the highest net-baryon densities will be created. The Nuclotron will provide the experiment with beams of a variety of particles, from protons to gold ions, with a kinetic energy ranging from 1 to 6 GeV/nucleon.

Results

Conclusion