The key research areas of the Laboratory of High Energy Physics (VBLHEP) are high energy heavy-ion physics, spin physics, and the modern issues of particle physics related to testing the Standard Model (SM), searching for new physics beyond the SM, and studying CP violation.
Research is conducted both at the Institute’s accelerator facilities and at the largest accelerator centres: CERN (Switzerland), the BNL (USA), and others.
The laboratory employees substantially contribute to joint studies at experimental facilities: the NA61, the NA62, the NA64, STAR, the CMS, ALICE, ATLAS, and others.
An accelerator complex is under development at the laboratory, including the upgraded Nuclotron-M Accelerator, a booster, and the NICA Heavy Ion and Polarised Particle Collider. Two collider facilities are under development: MPD (Multi-Purpose Detector) and SPD (Spin Physics Detector). The BM@N (Baryonic Matter at Nuclotron) Facility is operating with beams extracted from the Nuclotron.
The main aim of the NICA Project is to conduct experimental research in extreme states of hadron (strongly interacting) matter in phase transitions. Scientists will use colliding high-intensity ion beams at up to 11 GeV/n at a centre-of-mass, polarised proton and deuteron beams (with longitudinal and transverse polarisation, at up to 27 GeV), and extracted ion and polarised particle beams.
Employees of the Accelerator Division are the authors of ingenious solutions to problems related to accelerator machinery and the creators of a superconducting magnet technology, which is in great demand at the world’s largest accelerator centres. The laboratory specialists are known for their detector equipment development and a considerable contribution to the creation of experimental facilities at CERN, the BNL, and the GSI. In collaboration with leading specialists from these centres, they are designing systems for the facilities of the NICA Complex and FAIR, as well as upgrading detectors at the LHC.
As part of the NICA Megaproject implemented jointly with Russia, it is planned to create a collaborative research centre for relativistic nuclear physics studies and the development of a range of innovative and applied projects using the unique relativistic ion beams provided by the complex’s accelerators. Enormous innovative potential lies in the use of the Nuclotron and booster synchrotron’s unique beams for radiobiology research and electronics testing, including those related to the survival of living organisms and equipment under harsh cosmic radiation conditions, biomedical studies, and the radiation cancer therapy.
Among the most prospective areas are research aimed at developing methods for processing (deactivating) nuclear waste using accelerators, as well as solving the issue of creating accelerator-driven nuclear systems.
