NUST MISIS has become a member of an ambitious project provided by the world’s largest high-energy physics laboratory CERN (European Center for Nuclear Research). The purpose of the new Search for Hidden Particles (SHiP) experiment is to find an explanation for phenomena not described by the Standard Model of elementary particle physics: the existence of dark matter and the absence of antimatter in the universe.
At the present time we use the Standard Model to describe almost all experimental data on elementary particle physicsHowever, this does not explain the existence of dark matter and the absence of antimatter in the universe.
A number of theoretical physics scenarios, which are looking for deviations from the Standard Model, predict the existence of relatively light and long-lived4particles — heavy neutral leptons — which may be responsible for the baryon asymmetry of the universe, the emergence of the mass of neutrinos, dark matter, etc. The search for such particles will engage participants in the experiment.
For this purpose there will be designed a detection system (SHiP detector), which needs to be large due to the extreme weakness of the interaction of these particles with leptons of the Standard Model. In particular, the length of the “decay” volume — the vacuum-cylinder two-layer stainless steel — is more than 50 meters.
In addition, the SHiP detector project will require the creation of a special channel to display the particle beam accelerator with SPS (Super Proton Synchrotron) at CERN. Both are associated with the need to resolve a significant number of non-trivial engineering problems.
Now scientists from 43 institutions and 13 countries as well as CERN experts are studying the various aspects of this project. Furthermore, the development of the physical basis of the experiment employs a large group of theoretical physicists, in which Russian scientists will play an active role. An independent committee from CERN is examining the proposed technical solutions.
In early July, the SHiP Scientific Collaborative Council decided to include NUST MISIS among the number of universities participating in the experiment. The scientific team of the university will participate in the work related to the tau neutrino detector, a muon veto system, and the calorimeter.
Aside from NUST MISIS, proposals to join the project were submitted by two other Russian and three Korean universities. NUST MISIS and one of Korean Universities were ultimately selected. The participation of our university in the experiment is within the framework of Academic Excellence Program
The Russian Kurchatov Institute, Lebedev Physics Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences (FIAN), Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics (ITEP), Yandex, and JSC “NIKIET” are also participating in the experiment.
“Our Participation in the project at the world’s largest research center for High Energy Physics is recognition that MIS&S is becoming an increasingly important member of the international scientific community. The joint work of our scientists with specialists from leading scientific organizations with many years of successful experience in international experimental collaborations will contribute to our reaching our university’s potential in research, both in Russia and abroad,” said Alevtina Chernikova, Rector of NUST MISIS.
SHiP (Search for Hidden Particles)
— the CERN experiment to search for physics beyond the Standard Model. Its scientific task is to try to observe the long-lived heavy neutral leptons, which are predicted by various models of new physics, but not so far discovered experimentally. The experiment is at an early stage. The formation of the collaboration is to develop detailed scientific programs and equipment. It is expected that the final technical project will be ready by 2018, making installation and debugging to be completed by 2022, and only in 2023 it will begin recruiting data.
