Coordinated Projects

Over a decade ago, it was confirmed that detonation nanodiamond (DND) powders reflect very cold neutrons (VCNs) diffusively at any incidence angle and that they reflect cold neutrons quasi-specularly at small incidence angles. In the present publication, we report the results of a study on the effect of particle sizes on the overall efficiency of neutron reflectors made of DNDs [...]

The NA61/SHINE experiment at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) studies the onset of deconfinement in hadron matter by a scan of particle production in collisions of nuclei with various sizes at a set of energies covering the SPS energy range. This paper presents results on inclusive double-differential spectra, transverse momentum and rapidity distributions and mean multiplicities of $\pi ^\pm $, $K^\pm $, p and $\bar{p}$ produced in the 20% most central$^7$Be+$^9$Be collisions at beam momenta of 19A, 30A, 40A, 75A and 150A ${\mathrm{Ge} \mathrm{V}}\!/\!c$. [...]

The physics goal of the strong interaction program of the NA61/SHINE experiment at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) is to study the phase diagram of hadronic matter by a scan of particle production in collisions of nuclei with various sizes at a set of energies covering the SPS energy range. This paper presents differential inclusive spectra of transverse momentum, transverse mass and rapidity of $\pi ^{-}$ mesons produced in central${}^{40}$Ar+${}^{45}$Sc collisions at beam momenta of 13A, 19A, 30A, 40A, 75A and 150$A\,\text{ Ge }\text{ V }\!/\!\textit{c}$. [...]

The ‘Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research’ (FAIR) in Darmstadt will provide unique research opportunities for the investigation of fundamental open questions related to nuclear physics and astrophysics, including the exploration of QCD matter under extreme conditions, which governs the structure and dynamics of cosmic objects and phenomena like neutron stars, supernova explosions, and neutron star mergers. The physics program of the Compressed Baryonic Matter (CBM) experiment is devoted to the production and investigation of dense nuclear matter, with a focus on the high-density equation-of-state (EOS), and signatures for new phases of dense QCD matter. [...]

Electromagnetic particle-in-cell (PIC) codes are widely used to perform computer simulations of a variety of physical systems, including fusion plasmas, astrophysical plasmas, plasma wakefield particle accelerators, and secondary photon sources driven by ultra-intense lasers. In a PIC code, Maxwell's equations are solved on a grid with a numerical method of choice. [...]

We propose a scheme to explore regimes of strong-field quantum electrodynamics (SF QED) otherwise unattainable with the currently available laser technology. The scheme relies on relativistic plasma mirrors curved by radiation pressure to boost the intensity of petawatt-class laser pulses by Doppler effect and focus them to extreme field intensities. [...]

Reaching light intensities above 1025 W cm−2 and up to the Schwinger limit of order 1029 W cm−2 would enable the testing of fundamental predictions of quantum electrodynamics. A promising—yet challenging—approach to achieve such extreme fields consists in reflecting a high-power femtosecond laser pulse off a curved relativistic mirror. [...]

The major upgrade of the BM@N experiment for the heavy ion program is a new hybrid tracking system. It consists of seven planes of GEM detectors and four silicon tracking stations based on the modules with double-sided microstrip silicon sensors of CBM type. [...]

The NICA-MPD tracking system includes the vertex silicon detector MPD-ITS designed for the efficient registration of short-lived products of nucleus–nucleus interactions. The MPD-ITS is planned to be built using the novel technology of monolithic active pixel sensors (MAPS) following the corresponding know-how transfer from CERN’s ALICE-ITS2 project to a state of capability in order to create a large-area MAPS-only tracker for its implementation at NICA. [...]

The input pulse of the laser PEARL with energy of 18 J and pulse duration of about 60 fs was compressed to 10 fs after passage through a 4-mm thick KDP crystal and reflection at two chirped mirrors with sum dispersion −200 fs2. The experiments were performed for the В-integral values from 5 to 19 without visible damages of the optical elements, which indicates that small-scale self-focusing is not a significant issue. [...]