TSU Faculty of Physics has been awarded a grant fr om the Russian government to conduct high-energy physics research. This project will involve modeling detectors and physical processes for experiments at the Russian hadron supercollider NICA, located in Dubna. The goal of this project is to gain insight into the mysteries of the universe's creation. One of the key objectives of TSU's project is to share the international expertise of TSU scientists who have participated in groundbreaking research experiments at the Large Hadron Collider.
“The NICA (Nuclotron based Ion Collider fAcility) collider is one of the largest international research projects currently being carried out in Russia, ” said Sergey Filimonov, Head of the Laboratory of High Energy Physics Data Analysis and Dean of the Physics Faculty of TSU. “This collider will conduct a wide range of research experiments aimed at studying the properties of the universe in the first fractions of a second after the Big Bang.”
The project consists of four interconnected research areas. The first area focuses on modeling particle detectors and is led by Vladimir Ivanchenko, a renowned expert in the field who is affiliated with both TSU and CERN. Ivanchenko is a key developer of the Geant4 software package, which is widely used for simulating the behavior of elementary particles as they pass through matter. This software has applications not only in high-energy physics, but also in other fields such as medicine, wh ere it can be used to personalize radiation therapy for cancer patients.
The second area of the project involves analyzing large amounts of data from megascience experiments and developing new, highly efficient methods for data analysis using artificial intelligence and machine learning. The third area builds on TSU's expertise in developing and testing data acquisition electronics for particle detectors, which has been utilized in previous CERN projects. This experience will also be valuable for experiments at the NICA collider. The fourth area focuses on applying tools and technologies from high-energy physics to solve problems in other fields.
The first program is scheduled to launch in early 2025, and there are plans to develop specialized educational modules for Bachelor's and Master's degree programs in the future.
For reference: The Laboratory of High Energy Physics Data Analysis was established in 2018 at the TSU Faculty of Physics with support from a grant from the Russian government. The laboratory's staff is actively involved in major international projects in particle physics.