NRNU MEPhI: Charged Particle Detector

2023: Creation of a charged particle detector

A situated near Moscow To Dubna group of scientists NRNU MEPHI is creating a charged particle detector that will play an important role in the SPD (Spin Physics Detector) experiment, planned at the NICA collider. The university announced this on September 20, 2023.

NIKA Hadron Collider Construction Site

The detector being created is called Beam-Beam Counter (BBC)., to measure the polarization of the beam and the plane of events.

The detector is a wheel with a diameter of just under 2 meters and will consist of 16 sectors of 25 scintillator plates (a substance that emits light when absorbing ionizing radiation) in each sector. A spectrum-holding optical fiber is glued into the plate using a special adhesive with high transparency, which is output outside the detector and provides a signal to silicon photomultipliers with electronic modules that collect and digitize the signal.

Scientists from NRNU MEPhI have already carried out preliminary calculations, studied the experience of other experiments in building detectors of this type, and design options have appeared.

In order to select the optimal combination of scintillator materials, glue and fiber, prototypes were developed and created to build a detector with maximum efficiency. The NRNU MEPhI group works in close cooperation with the V.I. Wexler and A.M. Baldina JINR Laboratory of High Energy Physics, so joint measurements are regularly carried out. This exchange of experience is extremely useful for teaching students, as well as in improving equipment working methods.