NICA Project at JINR

Abstract

The project of Nuclotron-based Ion Collider fAcility (NICA) is under development at JINR (Dubna). The general goals of the project are providing of colliding beams for experimental studies of both hot and dense strongly interacting baryonic matter and spin physics (in collisions of polarized protons and deuterons). The first program requires running of heavy ion mode in the energy range of $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 4–11 GeV at average luminosity of $\textit{L} = 1 \cdot 10^{27}$ cm$^{-2}$s$^{-1}$ for $^{197}$Au$^{79+}$ nuclei. This stage of the project will be preceded with fixed target experiments on heavy ion beam extracted from Nuclotron at kinetic energy up to 4.5 GeV / u. The polarized beams mode is proposed to be used in energy range of $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 12–27 GeV (protons) at luminosity up to $1 \cdot 10^{32}$ cm$^{-2}$s$^{-1}$. The report contains a brief description of the facility scheme and characteristics in heavy ion operation mode, the description of the MultiPurpose Detector (MPD) and characteristics of the reactions of the colliding ions, which allow us to detect the mixed phase formation. Status and plans of the project development are presented.