Mega-science Project Research Articles

Quantum Algorithm of Imperfect KB Self-organization. Pt II: Robotic Control with Remote Knowledge Base Exchange

The technology of knowledge base remote design of the smart fuzzy controllers with the application of the "Soft / quantum computing optimizer" toolkit software developed. The possibility of the transmission and communication the knowledge base using remote connection to the control object considered. Transmission and communication of the fuzzy controller’s knowledge bases implemented through the remote connection with the control object in the online mode apply the Bluetooth or WiFi technologies. Remote transmission of knowledge bases allows designing many different built-in intelligent controllers to implement a variety of control strategies under conditions of uncertainty and risk. As examples, two different models of robots described (mobile manipulator and (“cart-pole” system) inverted pendulum). A comparison of the control quality between fuzzy controllers and quantum fuzzy controller in various control modes is presented. The ability to connect and work with a physical model of control object without using than mathematical model demonstrated. The implemented technology of knowledge base design sharing in a swarm of intelligent robots with quantum controllers. It allows to achieve the goal of control and to gain additional knowledge by creating a new quantum hidden information source based on the synergetic effect of combining knowledge. Development and implementation of intelligent robust controller’s prototype for the intelligent quantum control system of mega-science project NICA (at the first stage for the cooling system of superconducted magnets) is discussed. The results of the experiments demonstrate the possibility of the ensured achievement of the control goal of a group of robots using soft / quantum computing technologies in the design of knowledge bases of smart fuzzy controllers in quantum intelligent control systems. The developed software toolkit allows to design and setup complex ill-defined and weakly formalized technical systems on line.

Shining on from the first light: The early sciences of FAST

<p indent=0mm>The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) is a Chinese mega-science project, the first light of which was achieved on September 19th, 2016. The mid-1990s witnessed the birth of the FAST concept, March of 2011 the commencement of construction, 2019 the shared-risk open programs, and 2020 the final project review, first batch of major surveys and the starting of normal operation. Throughout the more than two decades’ “long march”, there has never been a lack of constant struggle and challenges, brought about by the fast-moving frontiers of radio technology and radio astronomy. This is a brief summary of our innovations in response, including a low-cost ultra-wideband commissioning receiver, a highly configurable digital spectrometer, a container-based data center, a fast radio burst (FRB) backend, etc. During the early science phase, we developed the world’s first commensal observing mode in this band, capable of recording pulsar, Galactic HI, extra-galactic HI, and transient data streams, simultaneously. The thus based Commensal Radio Astronomy FAST Survey (CRAFTS) was approved as one of the five major surveys by the science committee and has produced the first batch of FAST’s science results, including new pulsars, new FRBs, the first paper on systematic timing of FAST new pulsars, etc. Before CRAFTS, there is no major survey that accomplished simultaneously searching for pulsars and imaging HI. CRAFTS helps improve the survey efficiency of FAST by more than three folds. In addition to surveys, FAST has started more than 100 PI-led programs, selected by open competitions through the “shared-risk” and the first open call for proposals. Many proposals focused on new frontiers, such as FRBs and exoplanets. FAST joined the campaign to monitor the only Galactic FRB source J1935+2154 and provided the most stringent constraint on its radio flux, which is crucial to understand the origin of FRBs. This result along with the discovery papers has been cited as one of the major scientific achievements world-wide in 2020. The cost per unit effective collecting area of FAST is only 1/4 that of the Greenbank Telescope (GBT) or the Square Kilometer Array-phase 1 (SKA1). The success of FAST demonstrates that a giant filled-aperture antenna can still be the most cost-effective route toward the best absolute sensitivity. In light of the main stream of radio astronomy development toward powerful arrays, however, FAST will have to continue exploiting its upgradability, which is another major advantage of a giant single dish over interferometers. For an interferometer of <italic>n</italic> element, any major upgrade will incur cost of ~<italic>n</italic> sets of electronics and of ~<italic>n</italic>² computational costs. For FAST, a cooled PAF is its clear land-mark goal, which will help utilize its relatively flat and spacious focal plane to achieve even better survey efficiency and quality. Human’s worldview and cosmos-view have been entirely shaped by what we can observe. The ultimate goal of FAST is to deepen mankind’s understanding of nature through worldview-altering discoveries. On December 1st, 2020 local time, the great Arecibo telescope, after occupying the world’s apex of radio sensitivity for more than half a century, collapsed. The FAST was inspired by the audacity of Arecibo and encouraged by its achievements. As envisioned by Dr. Nan, Rendong, “FAST represents the collective ambition of Chinese astronomers to leap from chasing to leading.” It starts now.

Status of the mega-science project NICA

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.

Status of the MPD Experiment at JINR

The Mega-Science project NICA (Nuclotron-based Ion Collider fAcility) is under construction at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna. The Multi-Purpose Detector (MPD) is part of this complex, as a main physics experiment operating there. It aims to study the phase diagram of QCD matter at maximum baryonic density, determine the nature of the phase transition between the deconfined and hadronic matter and perform a search for the conjectured critical point in the diagram. Status of the preparation of critical elements of the infrastructure will be discussed, including the construction of the MPD subsystems.The designed physics performance of the detector components will be discussed. Spectra of identified hadrons, including hyperons and hypernuclei will be discussed, with emphasis on differential measurement and total yield extraction. The quality of directed and elliptic flow determination will be discussed, with comparison to model expectations. The sensitivity of event-by-event fluctuations and femtoscopic measurements to the nature of the phase transition and the presence of a critical point will be given. Performance of the electromagnetic calorimeter working in conjunction with the tracking system for the di-lepton measurements and the potential for identification of charmed mesons will be described. In summary, all the main components of the physics program of the MPD Collaboration will be presented.

Legal status of scientific collaborations in the implementation of megascience projects

Scientific collaboration can be viewed as an enlarged infrastructural element of the science and technology sector: an element comprising of scientific organizations, scientific equipment, and researchers. Thus, the formation of scientific collaborations requires the interaction of these three key elements. The projects which are currently under way or are planned for implementation in the coming years bring together research teams from different cities, countries and fields of scientific knowledge. These groups of researchers team up to achieve common goals on the basis of a decision taken by a state or a group of states to create a megascience project. The initiative to form a scientific collaboration may come from a scientific centre or a group of scientists, but the foundation of a scientific association within the framework of the megascience project occurs only as a result of a decision of a state or groups of states legalized in a specific way. This may come in the form of a conclusion of an international agreement on the foundation of a megascience project, the issuance of a directive from the public authority to establish a scientific centre, or the establishment of a legal entity with special powers to conduct activities within the megascience project. The study showed that the legal problems of scientific collaboration should be studied on the basis of the principles of interdisciplinarity, efficiency and effectiveness, independence, collaboration, financial security, freedom of movement of goods and funds for collaboration needs, priority of the public interest over the interests of individuals.

Overview of the BINP accelerator complex

The overview of two running BINP electron-positron colliders VEPP-4M and VEPP-2000 is presented. Since 2016 both colliders are joint to the single accelerator complex via common injector that supplies more intensive beams. In 2017 VEPP-2000 started data taking after 3 years of upgrade. The project of Super-Charm-Tau factory waits for the final government’s approval being considered as one of 6 mega-science project in Russia.

Tracking system performance of the BM@N experiment

The Baryonic Matter at Nuclotron (BM@N) experiment represents the first phase of the Nuclotron-based Ion Collider Facility (NICA), a mega-science project at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research. It is a fixed target experiment built for studying nuclear matter in conditions of extreme density and temperature. The tracking system of the BM@N experiment consists of three main detector systems: Multiwire Proportional Chambers situated before the magnet, Gas Electron Multipliers placed inside the magnet and Drift Chambers placed after the magnet. These systems provide the reconstruction of charged particles’ trajectories and their momentum in the magnetic field. This information is further used by Time of Flight detectors for the particle identification procedure. The system’s performance is reviewed and the spatial resolutions along with efficiencies of the detectors are estimated using the data collected in the recent physics runs of the Nuclotron.

The JINR distributed computing environment

Computing in the field of high energy physics requires usage of heterogeneous computing resources and IT, such as grid, high performance computing, cloud computing and big data analytics for data processing and analysis. The core of the distributed computing environment at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research is the Multifunctional Information and Computing Complex. It includes Tier1 for CMS experiment, Tier2 site for all LHC experiments and other grid non-LHC VOs, such as BIOMED, COMPASS, NICA/MPD, NOvA, STAR and BESIII, as well as cloud and HPC infrastructures. A brief status overview of each component is presented. Particular attention is given to the development of distributed computations performed in collaboration with CERN, BNL, FNAL, FAIR, China, and JINR Member States. One of the directions for the cloud infrastructure is the development of integration methods of various cloud resources of the JINR Member State organizations in order to perform common tasks, and also to distribute a load across integrated resources. We performed cloud resources integration of scientific centers in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia. Extension of the HPC component will be carried through a specialized infrastructure for HPC engineering that is being created at MICC, which makes use of the contact liquid cooling technology implemented by the Russian company JSC "RSC Technologies". Current plans are to further develop MICC as a center for scientific computing within the multidisciplinary research environment of JINR and JINR Member States, and mainly for the NICA mega-science project.

Construction Progress of the FAST Project

The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) is a Chinese mega-science project to build the largest single dish radio telescope in the world. A unique karst depression in Guizhou Province has been selected as the site to build an active reflector radio telescope with a diameter of 500 m and to realize the large sky coverage and high precision astronomical observations. Chinese Academy of Sciences and Guizhou Province are in charge of the FAST construction. The first light of the telescope was realized on September 25, 2016.

Preparing for the SKA: The Chinese perspectives

Since 1993, astronomers and engineers from more than 100 institutions in 20 different countries including China, have engaged in the international mega-science project—the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), which will be the world’s largest synthesis radio telescope. The SKA is currently in its pre-construction phase, and China has been playing a very active role. China has participated in 6 of the total of 10 SKA work packages, and carried out R&D in dish array, aperture array, wideband single pixel feeds, phased array feeds, signal and data transport, and science data processor. In the new SKA science book published in 2015, Chinese scholars have made their contributions in 20% of all the chapter proposals. After the SKA1 re-baselining, 20 Chinese astronomers participated in 11 out of the 13 SKA scientific working groups. The “2+1 Strategy” for China’s SKA science priorities has been established, and some important progress has been made in cosmological re-ionization detection as well as in SKA data processing. In June 2015, the Chinese participation in SKA1 passed through the Chinese Academy of Sciences Panel Review. The Chinese Community is now deeply involved into the preparation of the SKA, with activities such as SKA science cases study, researching on high-precision light-weight antennas, developing the Chinese prototype array, as well as some efforts in building an SKA regional data center in China. This article gives a brief historical review of the SKA, overviews some international and domestic progress of the project during its preconstruction phase, and also discusses some future plans of the Chinese SKA.

The Five‐hundred‐meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope project

AbstractThe Five‐hundred‐meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) is a Chinese megascience project funded by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) of the People's Republic of China. The National Astronomical Observatories of China (NAOC) is in charge of its construction and subsequent operation. Upon its expected completion in September 2016, FAST will surpass the 305 m Arecibo Telescope and the 100 m Green Bank Telescope in terms of absolute sensitivity in the 70 MHz to 3 GHz bands. In this paper, we report on the project, its current status, the key science goals, and plans for early science.

Design of an L-Band Cross-Dipole Phased Array Feed for FAST

The Five-Hundred-Meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) is a Chinese megascience project that aims to build the largest single dish radio telescope in the world. Given its multiple simultaneous beam formation, phased array feed (PAF) is widely used to extend the field of view and enhance the survey speed of the radio telescope. In this study, a broadband and low cost PAF element using cross-dipole antenna at L-band is designed based on the requirement of the FAST. The antenna is fed by two microstrip baluns which have high performance and is easy to manufacture compared to the traditional coaxial balun. A simple system model is also introduced to evaluate the PAF performance. The measured results of the fabricated element and the simulations of the system performance validate the effectiveness of element design.

Progress of FAST in science, technique and instrument

High-sensitive and large aperture telescope is the key equipment for radio observation. Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) is a Chinese mega-science project to build the largest single dish radio telescope in the world. FAST will enable astronomers to jump-start many science goals, for example, surveying the neutral hydrogen in the Milky Way and other galaxies, detecting faint pulsars, hearing the possible signals from other civilizations, etc. The paper aims to overview the latest progress of FAST including science, technique and equipment.

New horizons for extreme light physics with mega-science project XCELS

A short review of the Russian mega-science project XCELS and scientific problems to be solved are presented. We discuss the origin of multi-beam design to attain the highest field magnitude at optimal focusing. Then, we formulate particular physical problems of fundamental interest that can be solved within this project.

OVERVIEW PROSPECTS AT BINP

In this report the overview of activity at existing and future electron-positron high energy colliders at BINP is presented. VEPP-2000 and VEPP-4M electron-positron colliders are currently being in operation at the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics in Novosibirsk. These two machines cover a wide collision energy range: from 0.32 GeV to 2 GeV (VEPP-2000) and from 1.8 GeV to 11 GeV (VEPP-4M). Both complexes will be upgraded after successful start of operation in 2013 of the new electron-positron injector complex VEPP-5, which should supply both facilities by much more intense beams. Super-tau-charm factory waits for the final government's approval being considered as one of 6 mega-science project in Russia.

The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope project and its early science opportunities

AbstractThe National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Science (NAOC), has started building the largest antenna in the world. Known as FAST, the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope is a Chinese mega-science project funded by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). FAST also represents part of Chinese contribution to the international efforts to build the square kilometer array (SKA). Upon its finishing around September of 2016, FAST will be the most sensitive single-dish radio telescope in the low frequency radio bands between 70 MHz and 3 GHz. The design specifications of FAST, its expected capabilities, and its main scientific aspirations were described in an overview paper by Nan et al. (2011). In this paper, we briefly review the design and the key science goals of FAST, speculate the likely limitations at the initial stages of FAST operation, and discuss the opportunities for astronomical discoveries in the so-called early science phase.

THE FIVE-HUNDRED-METER APERTURE SPHERICAL RADIO TELESCOPE (FAST) PROJECT

Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) is a Chinese mega-science project to build the largest single dish radio telescope in the world. Its innovative engineering concept and design pave a new road to realize a huge single dish in the most effective way. FAST also represents Chinese contribution in the international efforts to build the square kilometer array (SKA). Being the most sensitive single dish radio telescope, FAST will enable astronomers to jump-start many science goals, such as surveying the neutral hydrogen in the Milky Way and other galaxies, detecting faint pulsars, looking for the first shining stars, hearing the possible signals from other civilizations, etc. The idea of sitting a large spherical dish in a karst depression is rooted in Arecibo telescope. FAST is an Arecibo-type antenna with three outstanding aspects: the karst depression used as the site, which is large to host the 500-meter telescope and deep to allow a zenith angle of 40 degrees; the active main reflector correcting for spherical aberration on the ground to achieve a full polarization and a wide band without involving complex feed systems; and the light-weight feed cabin driven by cables and servomechanism plus a parallel robot as a secondary adjustable system to move with high precision. The feasibility studies for FAST have been carried out for 14 years, supported by Chinese and world astronomical communities. Funding for FAST has been approved by the National Development and Reform Commission in July of 2007 with a capital budget ~ 700 million RMB. The project time is 5.5 years from the commencement of work in March of 2011 and the first light is expected to be in 2016. This review intends to introduce the project of FAST with emphasis on the recent progress since 2006. In this paper, the subsystems of FAST are described in modest details followed by discussions of the fundamental science goals and examples of early science projects.

Astronomy Research in China

AbstractDecades of efforts made by Chinese astronomers have established some basic facilities for astronomy observations, such as the 2.16-m optical telescope, the solar magnetic-field telescope, the 13.7-m millimeter-wave radio telescope etc. One mega-science project, the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST), intended for astronomical and astrophysical studies requiring wide fields and large samples, has been initiated and funded.To concentrate the efforts on mega-science projects, to operate and open the national astronomical facilities in a more effective way, and to foster the best astronomers and research groups, the National Astronomical Observatories (NAOs) has been coordinated and organizated. Four research centers, jointly sponsored by observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and universities, have been established. Nine principal research fields have received enhanced support at NAOs. They are: large-scale structure of universe, formation and evolution of galaxies, high-energy and cataclysmic processes in astrophysics, star formation and evolution, solar magnetic activity and heliogeospace environment, astrogeodynamics, dynamics of celestial bodies in the solar system and artificial bodies, space-astronomy technology, and new astronomical techniques and methods.

Experts as non-experts: A case from SSC

This article explores the relationship between experts and non-experts by examining of the SSC issue. The SSC, or Superconducting Supers Collider, was a large particle accelerator proposed in the early 1980s in the USA and cancelled in 1993. The SSC is generally talked about as a quintessential big science or megascience project. These big science projects inevitably need to be supported not only by government and industries but also by researchers who belong to other research fields or disciplines. High-energy physicists are experts within high-energy physics, but they are non-experts in other disciplines. The Japanese decision-making process of the SSC project clearly represents these interactions between experts and non-experts.

International collaboration in science and technology: lessons from CERN

here is a long and beneficial tradition of international collaboration in science and technology. There are, however, trends working against collaboration, and tensions between (for example) collaboration and competition, and European integration and increasing emphasis on national competitiveness. It is therefore important to have a clear understanding of when and in what form international collaboration is desirable. This paper considers these issues, drawing lessons from CERN – the European Laboratory for Particle Physics. CERN, which pioneered European collaboration, is now becoming in a sense a world organization. Physicists from 47 countries will participate in experiments at CERN's next project, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which is set to be the first megascience project constructed by a global partnership, driven ‘bottom up’ by the scientists involved. CERN's experience with the LHC could provide an excellent precedent for other projects.