NICA project at JINR

The project of Nuclotron-based Ion Collider fAcility NICA/MPD (MultiPurpose Detector) under development at JINR (Dubna) is presented. 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 providing of heavy ion collisions in the energy range of \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$ \sqrt {S_{NN} } $$\end{document} = 4−11 GeV1 at average luminosity of L = 1 × 1027 cm−2 s−1 for 197Au79+ nuclei. The polarized beams mode is proposed to be used in energy sNN = 12−27 GeV (protons at luminosity of L ≥ 1 × 1030 cm−2 s−1. The key issue of the Project is application of cooling methods—stochastic and electron ones. The report contains description of the facility scheme and characteristics in heavy ion operation mode, status and plans of the project development.