The Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna is preparing for the launch of a large international experiment SPD (Spin Physics Detector), which will be carried out at the NICA accelerator complex. Students from the Laboratory of Data Analysis in High Energy Physics are actively involved in the development of hardware and software for this megascience project. Currently, some of them have their internship at JINR (Dubna).
The NICA (Nuclotron-based Ion Collider fAcility) is designed to study the properties of dense baryonic matter – a state of matter characteristic of extreme conditions similar to those that existed in the early Universe. One of the key tasks of the complex is the reproduction and study of quark-gluon plasma – a special state of matter that, according to modern cosmological models, existed in the first tens of microseconds after the Big Bang.
– The purpose of my internship is to provide stable optical communication between the first and second level hubs. These devices are responsible for transmitting data from detectors to computers in the SPD experiment at the NICA complex, – explains Andrey Bernhardt, an employee of the Laboratory of Data Analysis in High Energy Physics of the TSU Faculty of Physics. – During the internship, we also worked in the laboratory that deals with the development of gas detectors. Previously, this research group created gas detectors for the muon system of the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, and now they are developing a Micromegas detector for SPD.
Another employee of the laboratory, Ramdas Makhmanazarov, is developing software at JINR to describe the geometry of the SPD detector on the NICA accelerator.
– Our task was to create the architecture of the SPDGeoModel software project and its initial implementation. At this stage, descriptions of classes (managers) have been developed for maternal volumes, a material manager, as well as classes and plugins for the design of individual SPD detectors, says Ramdas Makhmanazarov. – We got a result, which is the first step in creating software for describing the geometry of the facility, providing a uniform approach to modeling detectors. In the future, the set of classes will be supplemented with specific implementations as the technical documentation for the corresponding detectors arrives.
Ivan Akimov is working on a problem from the field of lattice quantum field theory. It is a computer simulation tool for quantum systems.
– My task is to find the phase transition temperature for a system consisting of gluons, says Ivan Akimov. – The study of this phenomenon is very important, and makes it possible to understand the conditions under which the quark-gluon plasma passed into the state that we are now observing in the Universe. Next, we plan to study this process near the black hole to see how gravity affects processes in the plasma.
Besides, the Laboratory of Data Analysis in High Energy Physics of the TSU Faculty of Physics is studying the use of high-energy physics tools and technologies to solve problems in a wide variety of applied fields, for example, in radiation medicine.
To find out how radiation affects human cells and DNA and whether this effect can be reversed to benefit, TSU physicists use the Geant4 software package. The work is being carried out under the supervision of Vladimir Ivanchenko, one of the authors of this package, a leading research fellow of the project implemented at TSU with the support of a mega-grant from the Russian government.
– My research topic is Modeling the effects of ionizing radiation on biological structures using the Geant4 software package. This work allows not only assessing risks, for example, during interplanetary flights, but also developing methods for treating and diagnosing cancer, – says Matvey Vologzhin, an employee of the Laboratory of Data Analysis in High Energy Physics, who is undergoing an internship at the Laboratory of Radiation Biology at JINR.
As humanity tries to increasingly explore space, it is necessary to study the possible consequences of exposure to prolonged radiation on humans. Modeling helps to do this. TSU scientists are the first in Siberia to conduct such research at the intersection of biology, physics and programming.