JINR and KBSU scientists told schoolchildren about nuclear matter, colliders and particle acceleration

The online lecture «NICA — a time machine in the Universe» was held on October 21 at the Institute of Physics and Mathematics of the Kabardino-Balkarian University named after H.M. Berbekov under a cooperation agreement with the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (Dubna).

Sergei Merts, senior researcher at the High Energy Physics Laboratory, shared interesting knowledge with the audience. In the first part of the lecture, he spoke about the principle of operation of accelerators, why scientists accelerate particles, and how the results obtained can be useful in medicine and other sectors of the national economy.

The scientist devoted the second part of the lecture to a detailed description of the NICA project — the Russian collider, with the help of which Dubna studies the origin of the Universe and explores extreme states of nuclear matter. Sergey Merts touched upon such issues as the feasibility of building an accelerator complex, the complexity of the systems included in its composition, and the results that can be obtained with its help.

In continuation of the lecture, the audience was given online tours of the hall of conducting magnets and the entire collider complex. In the future, it is planned to hold four more online lectures from scientists of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research for students of KBSU.

Also, under the agreement, a third-year student of the Mathematics direction Alina Mashezova and a first-year student of the Physics direction Lyana Bekulova will study at the NICA school and practice on the basis of the institute in Vladikavkaz and Dubna, — commented Boris Kunizhev, director of the Institute of Physics and Mathematics of the KBSU.