February 8 is the Day of Russian Science.
It was established in 1999 by presidential decree - "following historical traditions and in commemoration of the 275th anniversary of the founding of the Academy of Sciences in Russia."
The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) was founded by order of Emperor Peter I by decree of the ruling Senate of February 8 (January 28, old style), 1724.
In 1991, it was recreated by decree of the President of the Russian Federation as the country's highest scientific institution.
RT has compiled a selection of the largest Russian scientific projects that are of great importance for world science.
Modeling the Universe
The commissioning of the NICA (Nuclotron based Ion Collider fAcility) collider is scheduled for 2022.
The construction of the accelerator complex started in 2013 in Dubna, near Moscow, on the basis of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research.
We are talking about a project of the “megascience” class – this is how super-powerful and expensive complexes are called today, which make it possible to conduct research of world importance.
As a rule, such projects are implemented in the conditions of international cooperation.
collider NICA (Nuclotron based Ion Collider fAcility)
© NICA
About 300 scientists from 70 institutes in 32 countries are involved in NICA.
The collider will allow physicists to recreate in a laboratory environment the processes and conditions that arose at the dawn of the existence of our Universe in order to shed light on its history.
In accelerators, these states are reproduced by the collision of heavy ions.
One of the key elements of the new collider is the experimental setup MPD (Multi-Purpose Detector, multi-purpose detector), designed to study heavy ion collisions.
It will be located at one of the two intersection points of the NICA collider beams.
The assembly of the entire structure began in December 2021, when the first superconducting magnet was installed in the accelerator tunnel.
Nuclear PIK
In 2022, the PIK high-flux research nuclear reactor should also reach its full capacity of 100 megawatts.
Its launch took place on February 8, 2021 - then Russian President Vladimir Putin took part in the ceremony via video link.
The facility is located in Gatchina, at the site of the St. Petersburg Institute of Nuclear Physics named after V.I.
Konstantinov, which is part of the Kurchatov Institute.
The PIK reactor complex is also a mega-science project and is included in the government program for the creation of world-class mega-installations in Russia.
Employees perform work on the installation of elements of the research nuclear reactor "PIK"
RIA News
© Alexey Danichev
The construction of the PIK high-flux research nuclear reactor started in 1976.
By the mid-1980s, it was half built, but the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant forced the designers to reconsider the design to improve its safety.
With the beginning of the 1990s, work on the reactor was stopped.
The unfreezing of the project began in the mid-2000s.
PIK is one of the most powerful high-flux neutron sources in the world.
The complex is intended for research in the field of physics of fundamental interactions, nuclear physics, condensed matter physics, materials science, molecular biophysics, and isotope production.
A key role for researchers is played by such a characteristic of the reactor as the neutron flux - their number crossing a certain area per unit time.
If the flow is small, the experiment must take a long time to obtain data.
A high-flux reactor, to which PIK belongs, can significantly speed up research.
PIK reached a capacity of 10 megawatts by August 2021, at the same time 5 experimental stations were launched and the first international experiments were carried out with the participation of German scientific partners.
As scientists note, the neutron flux is a unique research tool.
Such a stream can shine through objects in order to study their structure.
The polarized neutron flux gives even more possibilities - by tracking it, physicists can draw conclusions about the magnetic and other properties of the translucent substance.
“This is absolutely necessary in modern biology, materials science, medicine, research of archaeological artifacts, art objects, etc.,” the deputy director of the St. Petersburg Institute of Nuclear Physics named after V.I.
B. P. Konstantinov on scientific work Vladimir Voronin.
Neutrino catcher
Last March, Baikal launched the largest deep-sea neutrino telescope Baikal-GVD in the Northern Hemisphere.
The telescope consists of clusters, each of which is assembled from 288 optical detectors.
The detectors are combined into garlands submerged to the bottom of Lake Baikal.
The total volume of the structure is about a cubic kilometer.
Work on the creation of the telescope began in 2010–2011.
The first cluster started working in 2016, then every year their number increased.
The project is the result of an international collaboration, the main Russian participants of which are the Institute for Nuclear Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (Dubna), Irkutsk State University, and Lomonosov Moscow State University.
Deep-sea neutrino telescope Baikal-GVD
RIA News
© Kirill Shipitsin
A neutrino telescope is capable of detecting weak flashes of light that occur when cosmic-origin neutrinos collide with water.
Recall that neutrinos are fundamental particles that do not have a charge and have a very small mass, as well as extremely weakly interacting with matter, which complicates their observation.
To detect neutrinos, a large volume of matter is required.
When neutrinos collide with protons and neutrons inside an atom, secondary particles are created that emit blue light - it is called Cherenkov radiation.
This phenomenon can be observed using a large transparent detector, sheltered from sunlight.
Scientists use underwater or under-ice space for these purposes.
Observing space-born neutrinos helps scientists learn about the history of the universe and its fundamental patterns.
In July 2021, the press service of the Institute for Nuclear Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences reported that with the help of Baikal-GVD they found alleged traces of astrophysical neutrinos.
These results were obtained during the observation period in 2018–2020.
Siberian "SKIF"
In January 2022, the state corporation Rosatom issued a permit for the construction of the Siberian Ring Photon Source Shared Use Center (CKP SKIF) in the science city of Koltsovo near Novosibirsk.
Earlier, in December 2021, the Glavgosexpertiza of Russia issued a positive opinion on the design documentation of the SKIF CCU.
The Boreskov Institute of Catalysis of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences acts as a customer for the construction; the Institute of Nuclear Physics named after A.I.
G. I. Budker SB RAS.
Construction is carried out within the framework of the national project "Science and Universities".
It is planned that the first experiment at the new synchrotron will be carried out at the end of 2023.
The accelerator complex of the VEPP-2000 electron-positron collider is the first part of the Siberian Ring Photon Source (SKIF)
RIA News
© Grigory Sysoev
Recall that synchrotron radiation is called electromagnetic radiation of charged particles that move in a magnetic field at a speed close to the speed of light.
We are talking about streams of photons separated from electrons in a magnetic field.
Synchrotron radiation makes it possible to study the atomic structure of molecules.
It is used for research in materials science, chemistry, biology, medicine and other fields.
Until the 1960s, X-ray tubes were used to study the structure of matter.
However, synchrotron radiation gives scientists much greater opportunities, its brightness is millions of times higher than that of X-rays.
To carry out such studies, special facilities are built - synchrotrons.
Synchrotrons consist of two main elements - the particle accelerator itself, in which charged electrons reach the speed of light, accelerating along a circular trajectory, as well as receiving laboratory stations where it is studied.
SKIF will include thirty such experimental stations.
The uniqueness of the synchrotron under construction lies in the fact that it will have the smallest emittance - the volume of the phase radiation beam, of all sources of synchrotron radiation existing today in the world.
This will open up the possibility of very precise studies.
“The creation of the SKIF CUC will have a systemic effect on the development of science and industry in Russia.
Technologies obtained using SI can be applied in mechanical engineering, mining and processing enterprises, in the microelectronic and chemical industries, energy and military-industrial complex, ”the Rosatom website notes.
TsPK SKIF is already included in the European League of Synchrotron Radiation Sources (League of European Accelerator based-Photon Sources, LEAPS).
Evgeny Levichev, director of the SKIF Central Collective Use Center, told the media about this last year.
"Tsar-laser"
At the beginning of 2022, it is planned to launch the first stage of the world's most powerful laser system UFL-2M, which the media dubbed the "Tsar Laser".
The scientific director of the Russian Federal Nuclear Center - All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics Vyacheslav Solovyov spoke about the launch dates in the fall of 2021 in an interview with the Strana Rosatom portal.
“The first stage will be launched early next year.
This is a quarter of the channels on which it will already be possible to conduct a certain class of research.
The laser will operate at full power in 2027,” he explained.
Elements of the UFL-2M laser system
© RFNC-VNIIEF
“We have to study the possibility of igniting thermonuclear targets with a laser, form the shape of these targets, investigate the issues of turbulent mixing and the interaction of laser radiation with plasma.
We will just carry out these studies at the first stage of UFL‑2M,” he added.
The first module of the UFL-2M installation was launched at the end of 2020.
The installation is being built in Sarov, in the Nizhny Novgorod region.
The chamber in which laser pulses will act on targets was assembled in 2019.
The mass of the chamber is 120 tons, it is an aluminum alloy sphere with a diameter of 10 m.
In this case, the target is a shell, on the inner surface of which a layer of deuterium is deposited.
Recall that developments in the field of laser thermonuclear fusion have been underway since the 1960s, when Soviet scientists found that a thermonuclear reaction can be launched using a powerful laser pulse.
The first experiments on laser compression of spherical thermonuclear targets were carried out in the USSR in the 1970s, and research continues today.
After the construction is completed, the solid-state laser of the UFL-2M facility will have 192 laser channels, that is, it will be able to create 192 laser beams capable of irradiating the target from all sides.
So far, there have been no successful experiments in the world on the ignition of a thermonuclear target by a laser.
To start a thermonuclear reaction, it is necessary to compress a small amount of matter uniformly to a very high density.
Such experiments have already been carried out on the American NIF setup, but were unsuccessful - the setup could not ensure uniform compression of the target.
Russian scientists expect the UFL-2M design to achieve this goal.
Recall that thermonuclear fusion occurs during the fusion of light nuclei of atoms - primarily hydrogen.
The reaction starts at very high temperature and pressure, in the process part of the mass of the substance is converted into energy.
Search for "enchanted"
In November 2021, the press service of the Institute of Nuclear Physics.
G.I.
Budkera announced the creation of an international partnership that will coordinate the development of the detector project and the development of the physical program of the experiment at the new generation electron-positron collider Super Charm-Tau Factory.
In addition to the Institute of Nuclear Physics, the association included, in addition to the INP, scientific groups of the Research Institute of Nuclear Physics of Moscow State University, the National Research University Higher School of Economics, the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (Dubna), a number of other Russian universities, as well as foreign research centers: the German Justus Liebig Giessen University (JLU) and the Mexican Center for Contemporary Research CINVESTAV.
The collider under construction in Sarov will become an accelerator complex for conducting experiments with colliding electron-positron beams in the energy range from 2 to 5 GeV and with an unprecedented level of luminosity - two orders of magnitude higher than that achieved by now in the world.
Entrance to the building of the Institute of Nuclear Physics named after G. I. Budker in Novosibirsk
RIA News
© Grigory Sysoev
Recall that the luminosity of an accelerator in nuclear physics is a characteristic that shows the number of interactions between particles of a beam of emitted particles and a target per second and at a unit cross section of this interaction.
This characteristic applies both to accelerators with stationary targets and to colliders where colliding beams are used.
Such an increase in luminosity will be achieved by the new CrabWaist method developed by specialists from INFN (Italy) and the INP SB RAS.
The collider will be designed to search for "new physics" in rare or forbidden by the Standard Model decays of charmed particles and tau leptons.
Recall that the Standard Model is the modern theory of the structure and interactions of elementary particles, verified experimentally.
This model is not considered the final theory of elementary particles, it is assumed that it is only a part of a more comprehensive theory.
The project to create such an accelerator was first considered and approved in 2011 at a meeting of the European Committee for Future Accelerators (ECFA).
In the same year, the Super S-Tau Factory project became one of the mega-science projects selected by a government commission for implementation in Russia.
"Revolution in Science"
According to the Deputy Director of the Institute of Nuclear Physics and Technology of the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Professor Georgy Tikhomirov, today the main scientific discoveries in cosmology, astrophysics, and high energy physics are being made precisely within the framework of joint international projects in which Russian scientists actively participate.
“The fact that Russia is a member of all the leading international collaborations is another reminder that we are a world scientific power,” the expert explained in an interview with RT, recalling the importance of state support for fundamental research.
Gettyimages.ru
© alengo
The scientist recalled the federal scientific and technical program for the development of synchrotron and neutron research, which was approved by the government in 2020.
The program implies not only the participation of Russian scientists in international scientific projects, but also the creation of such “megascience” installations in Russia.
"It is very important.
In addition, it is important to involve young people in science and support them.
Until now, the social status of a scientist in the eyes of society is not high enough.
Now we are trying to overcome the consequences of the 1990s and 2000s, which bled science.
And we still have a lot of work to do in this direction,” Tikhomirov said.
Professor of Theoretical Physics Department of the Faculty of Physics of Moscow State University, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, member of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences Yuri Vladimirov believes that fundamental research is a locomotive for the applied sphere.
“The structure of elementary particles, elements, their interaction - the progress of technology depends on our knowledge in these areas.
Computers and smartphones are already implementing the knowledge gained earlier in the framework of fundamental physical research, ”the scientist said in a comment to RT.
Now fundamental physics will determine even the development of such a sphere far from the natural sciences as philosophy, the expert is sure.
“In general, there is a pattern: in the first third of every century, there were serious revisions of the foundations of all physics.
At the beginning of the last century, such a revolution was the creation of quantum theory, the creation of the theory of relativity.
A century earlier - the creation of Lobachevsky's geometry, theoretical mechanics.
So, apparently, a certain process is also going on now, although not everyone notices it, a new revolution in science is planned, ”summed up Yuri Vladimirov.