A long story to be continued

On 15 April, a seminar dedicated to the 65th anniversary of the Synchrophasotron launch was held. On that day, not only veterans were among the guests in the conference hall of the Laboratory of High Energy Physics, but also staff members of the Laboratory, young scientists, for whom this meeting was also a solemn end to a long-term session of the NICA accelerator complex.

As an epigraph to the seminar, it would be quite appropriate to use the famous expression "The science of winning" - to overcome doubts, the concept of "impossible", bureaucratic obstacles. The history of the creation and modernization of the Synchrophasotron, as well as its use for a new project were stage by stage presented in reports. The memoirs, facts and photographs traced the labor of the team of many thousands over almost seven decades - from theoretical physicists to designers, from academicians to mechanics and of course international cooperation: visits of famous physicists, application and development of novel technologies based on world experience, participation in experiments, training of scientists from different countries of the world.

At the opening of the seminar, JINR Vice-Director, RAS Corresponding Member Vladimir Kekelidze considered the Synchrophasotron to be a world-class symbol of science, with its occurrence in Russia high energy physics started, the bar of 10 GeV was overcome. And it was no less significant event than the launch of the first artificial Earth satellite. Its creators V.I.Veksler, L.P.Zinoviev and many others accomplished a great feat. No less important is the fact that an environment was provided for the implementation of a large scientific program in high energy physics. Further, Vladimir Kekelidze listed the main scientific achievements, thanks to which in 1964 Dubna hosted an authoritative scientific forum on elementary particle physics - the Rochester Conference.

Vladimir Dimitrievich congratulated all present on the anniversary and especially the veterans, whose dedicated work a long time ago had allowed to achieve record values of the accelerator energy within shortest terms. Also, congratulations were addressed to Professor V.V.Glagolev on his 90th anniversary. Viktor Viktorovich was in the group of Moscow State University graduates who were among the first to come to Dubna to create the legendary research machine.

The report "The fate of the accelerator" made by the Head of the sector of VBLHEP Pavel Zarubin was dedicated to the events preceding the era of the Dubna Synchrophasotron and the stages of its creation. Thus, an original technique for studying cosmic rays, tested by V.I.Veksler during an expedition to Elbrus is mentioned in the journal "Advances in physical sciences" for 1937. And afterwards, there was the period of series of documents, descriptions of the equipment, methods of data processing on physical experiments, interesting facts. Young, purposeful people, with burning eyes, ready to spend days and nights in the Laboratory shown on archival photographs today are authoritative world experts, founders of new areas of research, heads of large research teams.

Advisor to the Directorate of the Laboratory Professor Alexander Malakhov spoke about the creation of a new accelerator on the basis of the legendary base facility of 1987-1992 in his report "From the Synchrophasotron to the Nuclotron". From the first scientific idea expressed by Academician Alexander Baldin and to the launch of the Nuclotron there were numerous approvals, search for optimal solutions and creation of unique sources. The multifaceted scientific history of the Nuclotron was presented in documents, reviews, excerpts of publications, which has continued to the present day, experiments are carried out on the extracted beams, including applied research. And a new generation of scientists and specialists continues to share their knowledge and abilities in the implementation of the NICA project with the same enthusiasm.

The transition from the historical part to modern achievements was outlined by the Deputy Head of the Accelerator Department Andrey Sidorin in the report "NICA - present and future". The rest of the unrealized plans of the Laboratory, the history of the creation of the NICA accelerator complex, the stages of improving the design of the facility, the increase in the collider ring with the development of the scientific program were mentioned in the report. The events that we are contemporaries of - the creation of a magnet factory, the construction of new premises, the launch of a booster, the use of a new source KRION, signals of occurring beams during the launch of several accelerators, the installation of the first magnet in the collider building were highlighted in the report as well. All these achievements belong to the new team that has confirmed of being professional. Today the staff at VBLHEP is able to ensure the reliable operation of new facilities.

Interesting facts were mentioned about the first discussions of the NICA project, its name and configuration in the report "From the 1950s to the 2020s" made by a VBLHEP chief researcher RAS Academician Igor Meshkov. There is a lot of subtle witty remarks, historical facts and memories that is impossible to retell, one should see and hear with the intonation of Igor Nikolaevich.

It is a great happiness that such unusual reports were brought together within the framework of a seemingly ordinary seminar. Everything was perfect here - both the sequence of development of the JINR basic facility and the mention of a huge number of little-known events involved in its creation. In addition, the solemn event ended with a banquet in the building Synchrophasotron is positioned where one could discuss what they heard, share their impressions and meet colleagues from other departments.

Galina MYALKOVSKAYA,
photo by Igor LAPENKO