3rd commissioning cycle of the NICA injection complex
is almost completed

Within the third commissioning cycle of the NICA injection complex, specialists of the Veksler and Baldin Laboratory of High Energy Physics JINR have reached stable beam acceleration modes at all elements of the accelerator cascade at the injection complex. This important achievement in the current commissioning cycle is nearing completion of its main task.

The current commissioning cycle at the injection complex of the NICA megascience project started in January 2022. Its main goal is to launch and test comprehensively all the main systems of the injection complex: the ion source, the Heavy-Ion Linear Accelerator (HILac), the Booster, the Nuclotron, and the charged particles beam transportation channel to physical facilities with a fixed target.

"At present, we have obtained stable beam acceleration modes at all the elements of the injection complex cascade," VBLHEP Deputy Director Andrey Butenko said. He also pointed out that a number of important tasks had been solved to achieve this result. Therefore, a transfer beam system from the Booster to the Nuclotron with remaining electrons stripping from carbon ions shells was launched and debugged. The beam was successfully injected and accelerated in the Nuclotron. After that, carbon nuclei were extracted from the ring and conducted through the magnetic channel at a distance of about 130 m to the BM@N facility. That is to say, the systems of cryogenic support, extraction from the Booster, transfer, and beam injection into the Nuclotron were successfully tested. The accelerated carbon nuclei extraction mode with transfer thought the beam transportation channel in the experimental building was also configured.

Within the framework of the third commissioning cycle, specialists started working at the BM@N facility with an accelerated carbon nuclei beam.

All these results have brought VBLHEP specialists closer to the successful completion of the current commissioning cycle at the NICA injection complex.