Tradition of finding ideas in accelerator physics
Deputy Head of the Acceleration Department of VBLHEP, a member of the Programme Committee Anatoly Sidorin told us about the history of the seminar and its participants.
- The first seminar was held in 1995, in the year of the death of Vladislav Pavlovich Sarantsev, but was timed to coincide with his birthday – 23 September. He was a bright man. Sarantsev left a significant mark in the history of the Institute and perhaps, not so much from the point of view of the current attitudes, but from the point of view of a team charged with work, at one time young and now, mature. And this team carefully keeps the memory of its mentor. The organizers of the seminar are former employees of his Department of New Acceleration Techniques - DNAT. Many scientists from different areas have grown out of it.
The seminar in memory of V.P. Sarantsev is hold every two years, there was one pass for the pandemic. And this is one of two large Russian meetings on acceleration topics. The main conference - the former All-Union Meeting on Charged Particle Accelerators has now grown into the Russian Conference on RuPAC Charged Particle Accelerators. They present reports on the statuses of all accelerator complexes operating in Russia. Our seminar is arranged somewhat differently. At DNAT, fantastic ideas were always welcomed that became the basis for the seminar. It tries to preserve the "spirit of search". Therefore, focus is on the participation of young scientists under the age of 35, they are awarded prizes for the best reports. The freshness of the idea is evaluated, how interesting the field of application is, the originality of the development, how convincing the author himself is.
I started with a second seminar in 1997 and presented a drive with a longitudinal magnetic field - a very unusual idea. Then, some of the reports and proposed solutions were either in principle not realizable, or not realizable at that moment. The sessions also present review reports that are of interest to the entire acceleration community. But mostly, the seminar is about new ideas.
How is the venue determined?
- Our seminar is held only in person, online reports can be admitted in exceptional situations. The very first seminars were held in the LHEP Conference hall. Then there was a tradition to gather in Alushta. This year, it was supposed to be there, but many VBLHEP employees who were supposed to participate could not be released on a business trip, since they are involved in sessions at NICA. Therefore, the venue was changed to Dubna.
What scientific centres were represented?
- The majority of Russian scientific centres are represented. The bulk of the participants are from JINR. Novosibirsk INP SB RAS is our regular guest that has always supported the seminar. NRNU MEPhI, NRC Kurchatov Institute - ITEP, FSUE RFNC‑VNIITF, JSC NIIEFA, LPI, SINP MSU, NRU "MPEI," JSC "VNIINM." There are several foreign colleagues, the seminar holds its own international brand.
What were the most anticipated topics?
- Reports on NICA Megascience Projects and SKIF synchrotron radiation source. The circulation of electron beams in SKIF and the circulation of heavy element nuclear beams in NICA have now been obtained. Next is the issue of improving the parameters. These are the facilities that are already entering their operating modes.
How many reports have been made on the NICA Complex?
- About a third of the reports. Papers can be presented on this topic for years. There were reports on beam cooling systems. This topic is interesting in that, for example, electronic cooling, proposed back in the Soviet Union, has not yet been used in experimental facilities in Russia. Currently, we work with the electronic cooling system in the booster and unique installation is scheduled with the largest magnetized electron beam of the electronic cooling system of the collider.
Another system is stochastic cooling. It was proposed by Nobel winner Simon van der Meyer and is first implemented in the west. In the Soviet Union, test experiments on stochastic cooling were carried out at the G.I. Budker INP in the early 1980s and since then, this technology has not developed in the Russian Federation. As part of the preparation of the NICA project, a stochastic cooling system was developed at Nuclotron, on which pioneer research was carried out on cooling, including heavy ions.
And today, one channel will be launched at the collider full-scale. This system has a unique sensor design that captures the beam signal and the devices that operate on the beam. It was proposed at our Institute and has not yet been implemented anywhere.
One of the important reports was that it was not yet in full, but the largest cryogenic complex in Russia was launched: with a capacity of 10 kW at a temperature of 4 K and a nitrogen recondensation system was put into operation. We will have the most powerful helium and nitrogen plant in the country. There are few of them in the whole world. Of course, we cannot compete with the LHC and the superconducting linear accelerator in Germany, because the geometric dimensions of the facilities there are much larger. But for Russia, we are unique and most of the equipment of Russian production either was developed for us, including with the participation of our specialists. We put forward high requirements and on their basis, there are technical solutions, also with our participation. These are the main samples of equipment that will then go to the gas industry.
Tell us about the results of the seminar, please. What reports received the award this time?
- The seminar was successful. The programme is complete. There were a total of 97 participants. 32 oral reports were made and 33 were presented at poster sessions. On the first day, all participants were present. On other days, everyone interested came. Those who wish went on an excursion to Uglich and visited the NICA Collider. As Chairman of the Organizing Committee Grigory Shirkov said, usually, at large conferences, a new schedule is posted every morning and our schedule was kept from start to finish. Also, everyone who submits their papers before 5 October can count on publication in a special collection of materials for the seminar.
The first prize was awarded to Daniil Chumakov from VBLHEP for a report on increasing the intensity of the ion beam in the booster of the NICA Complex. He is a recent university graduate. He has extensively worked on NICA sessions. His report is based in part on working with a "live" beam, processing measurement results, also, some suggestions and calculations that outline the area of further development.
The second prize was awarded to Marina Bikchurina from INP SB RAS. There is a good young team that deals with a neutron source based on a vacuum-insulated accelerator. The facility is very "Sarantsev-like", unusually arranged.
The third place was taken by our Egyptian colleague Mohamed Abed from VBLHEP for the report in the poster session. His report is dedicated to a new, both for the Russian Federation and for our Institute, area of activity within the framework of the development of stochastic cooling. An integral part of it is diagnostics. There are ideas for how to arrange this in terms of electronics and the software required for it. During the session at NICA, he prepared software, tried it on a beam and came up with new techniques for processing the results. The title of the report sounds highly specialized and first of all, it seems to be dedicated to diagnostics but in fact it is the development of stochastic cooling systems.
We asked the participants to share their opinions about the seminar, to tell what was important for themselves during the sessions.
Yury Rogovsky (INP SB RAS):
This is the fourth time I have participated in the seminar. The seminar is interesting and although I came for a few days, I found a period that I would call the chamber meeting of Novosibirsk and Dubna. We met with colleagues, exchanged reports and experience. I really liked that there are a lot of young people that they have the opportunity to speak. I wondered if it was graduate students or researchers and they often answered me that these were young employees and even undergraduates! They were worried, embarrassed but still made very good reports.
I repeat that the seminar turned out to be interesting, the programme and the Organizing Committee worked perfectly! Of course, it was interesting to hear status reports on megascience facilities: the launch of NICA and the results of the first runs, as well as the report of my college Pavel Piminov on the stages of launching the SKIF SI source. Interesting were also the reports on new large (and not so) facilities and parts of facilities, on projects and plans, which there are future new and interesting investigations for. I presented a report on the work of the VEPP-2000 collider over the past few years. My task was to tell that in addition to the usual accelerating physics for JINR, where heavy ions are accelerated and will collide, there are other facilities in Russia, such as electron-positron machines located in Novosibirsk. We work with them and we also have interesting scientific tasks, challenges, aspirations, as well as good results. Our accelerator science lives on. We welcome young people in our ranks and we will build more than one accelerator with them.
This is my first time in Dubna and I want to say that this is a very clean and neat city, I would say a park city, with neat sidewalks. I really liked him! Our Novosibirsk science city is a forest city, where squirrels often cross the paths to the work. It was very interesting to visit the NICA Complex; it is a pity that not many locations were viewed. Still, I would like to see the remote control of the accelerator complexes and Nuclotron. Well, in general, in the scientific community, the conference is an opportunity to once again meet colleagues and old acquaintances, to communicate in person. It is very good that such meetings are held every year - either a conference from the RuPac series, or a seminar in memory of Sarantsev.
Daniil Chumakov (VBLHEP):
This is the first time I have participated in this seminar. It was important for me first of all to learn about today’s achievements of accelerator physics, relevant tasks, and the seminar allowed me to personally communicate with scientists and engineers working on new facilities engaged in the design of accelerators and their systems. It was very nice to see a lot of peers. I was awarded the first prize for the report - it was unexpected, and the award means a lot to me. It's nice that my report interested the audience. The report was dedicated to plans to increase the intensity of the ion beam in the booster synchrotron of the NICA Complex. This is one of the main tasks on the way to achieving the required luminosity in the NICA Collider. In the last accelerator session, we identified the limitations of beam intensity in the booster, and in the new session, we are ready to apply the accumulated experience to overcome them.
Many reports interested me - in particular, the beam diagnostic system for SCIF, laser cooling of ultrarelativistic beams. But I believe that all the topics presented at the seminar are important: from the operation of beam sources and diagnostics to the experience of interacting with beam consumers and upgrading accelerators. At poster sessions, I was able to exchange experience with colleagues from Novosibirsk and NRC KI, discuss plans for the current session. I am grateful to the organizers of the seminar and hope to participate in the next conferences and seminars.
Alexander Makarov (NRNU MEPhI):
We currently work on the SILA project. Its uniqueness lies in the combination of two facilities - a storage ring and an X-ray free electron laser. For this, a linear accelerator is designed that will serve as an injector for both facilities. I am a graduate student and for my thesis, I study collective effects in this accelerator. My talk at the seminar was dedicated to such a phenomenon as wake‑fields.
As far as I know, the two main conferences in the field of accelerator physics are RuPAC and the seminar in memory of V.P. Sarantsev. Each event is held every two years. Last year, I was at RuPAC in St. Petersburg and this year, just at a seminar in Dubna. I try to capture all relevant events useful for my scientific field. This is my first‑time taking part in this seminar. It is felt that there are many engineers who are engaged in iron. It was interesting to listen to their reports, because my field of activity is completely different - these are calculations and simualtion.
Dubna made a strong impression on me - it is a beautiful city on the banks of the Volga. In my spare time, I spent a lot of time on walks, exploring the sights. In addition, JINR's history, atmosphere and scientific heritage are felt everywhere here that also left a positive mark on the visit.
Mohamed Abed (VBLHEP):
This is the second time I have taken part in such a seminar. For the first time, I participated in it as a student of Tomsk Polytechnic University, and this year - already as a junior researcher at JINR. It was interesting for me to return to this seminar at another stage of my scientific work.
Most of all I liked the friendly and open atmosphere. The seminar made it possible not only to listen to scientific reports, but also to communicate with colleagues, discuss different ideas and get acquainted with researchers who work on various tasks of accelerator physics. During my studies and work in Russia, I was also lucky enough to meet many friendly and sympathetic people, and at the seminar I again felt the same warm atmosphere.
The scientific level of the seminar, in my opinion, was high. The programme presented various areas of accelerator physics: beam dynamics, cooling methods, diagnostics, RF systems, as well as the development of the NICA complex. For me, topics related to bundle diagnostics, stochastic cooling and RF systems were particularly interesting, as they are close to my current work on Schottkov diagnostics for the NICA complex.
I was also very pleased that my report ranked third among young scientists. For me it was unexpected and very pleasant. I perceive this as an additional motivation to continue working and develop further in my area.
I would like to thank the organizers of the seminar for the opportunity to present their results and communicate with colleagues.
Alexander Karpuk (VBLHEP):
I am participating in the seminar for the first time. Senior comrades and colleagues highlighted the high level of reports at seminars of past years. Therefore, I wanted to prepare a worthy report corresponding to the level of the event. It was very interesting to listen to the reports of colleagues from other organizations and discuss with them the issues of interest to me. My talk was on the amplification complexes of harmonic VCh2-VCh3 stations. The structure of the amplifying complexes of the NICA Collider is fundamentally different from the structures of the booster and Nuclotron. Accordingly, to provide design parameters during a beam session, the equipment requires a special approach and understanding. It is also worth noting that in the Russian Federation, the solid‑state design of constant amplifiers in the synchrotron is used for the first time.
Danil Chistyakov (INP SB RAS):
For the first time I take part in a seminar in memory of V.P. Sarantsev, before that I participated in a major RuPAC conference. Therefore, first of all, I note the difference in the number of participants. There is a more chamber atmosphere and, it seems, many have known each other for a long time. I had a poster report on estimating luminosity from dynamic beam sizes. I was able to find people here on my topic and discuss it, learned something new for myself, and was also able to share my experience. The main discussion was dedicated to general issues that interest us on colliders. I liked the status reports on the facilities. Unfortunately, some reports on highly specialized topics were not clear to me. But for me personally, this seminar was a success.
Marina Bikchurina (INP SB RAS):
I am participating in the seminar for the second time. My talk was about measuring the cross section of a nuclear reaction 6Li(d, n)7Be. I am impressed by the level of organization of the conference. This year there were many reports describing the progress in the implementation of such large projects as SKIF and NICA. It is very interesting. I also enjoyed a tour of the NICA Collider. Of course, the seminar is a unique opportunity for face-to-face communication, and this year, I was lucky enough to continue dating and make new ones. It was also nice to continue learning about the city of Dubna, we managed to visit many new places and to walk again along the picturesque embankment.
Maria KARPOVA, photo by Igor LAPENKO