Vacuum System of the NICA Project

Abstract

This paper presents the progress of development of the NICA project vacuum system. The main vacuum requirements in the chain of accelerators and the current status of work are described. Special attention is paid to the problems of achieving ultra-high vacuum in the booster. The test bench for the study of most efficient pumping tools for the beam chamber of the superconducting fast cycling synchrotron has been designed and built for this purpose in cooperation with the VakuumPraha Company (Prague, Czech Republic). The vacuum distribution in the superconducting accelerators with “warm” chamber parts at room temperature was simulated using specialized software. The simulation showed that it is necessary to install additional pumping equipment along the booster perimeter. To solve this problem, the original design of a titanium sublimation pump operating at cryogenic temperatures is under development in collaboration with the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics (Novosibirsk, Russia).