Physicists on the move (KINEÓ)
The "Physicists on the move" project (acronym: KINEÓ) is focused on the mobility of junior researchers, which the Nuclear Physics Institute of the CAS, v. v. i. (hereinafter referred to as NPI) plans to send to four leading foreign research institutes (FAIR, PSI, University of Barcelona, Hebrew University). Thanks to a six-month internships, these four employees will increase their professional knowledge, strengthen the international contacts of NPI and, upon their return, will strengthen the staff of its existing scientific teams. The selection of staff will take place through a transparent internal selection procedure.
The target group of the project is Ph.D. and post-doc students working in NPI, especially in the fields of theoretical physics, nuclear physics and the development of accelerators. This group is very promising for NPI, as it is based on a new generation of researchers.
In the return phase, which will be part of all four internships, interns will transfer the acquired knowledge through direct interaction with their colleagues in scientific groups, at NPI joint seminars, working group meetings, presentation of results at conferences and leading younger students (Bc., high school students in Open Science project etc.). Seminars will also take place at universities cooperating with NPI (FMP CU, FNSPE CTU in Prague, Brno UT, Silesian University Opava). During the implementation of the project, joint publications will also be created.
The NPI website will regularly inform about project progress and individual key activities, including the experience of young researchers of work in foreign organizations.
The KINEÓ project, Reg. No. CZ.02.2.69/0.0/0.0/16_027/0008491, is supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic and from the European Structural and Investment Funds, the Operational Program Research, Development and Education (OP VVI).
Project duration: May 1, 2018 – December 31, 2019
Racah Institute of Physics, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Mentor: prof. Nir Barnea
Subject of the stay is following: introduction to the Stochastic Variation Method model and its subsequent use in realistic calculations of light meson nuclei, especially quasi-coupled states of eta and K-meson, and Lambda hypernuclei with four to eight nucleons.
The internship will take place in the group of prof. Nir Barnea - one of the world's leading research groups on the calculation of small particle systems - atoms, nuclei and meson nuclei - in variational methods and combining „ab initio“ methods in conjunction with realistic interactions in the study of fine effects of meson-nucleon and hyperon-nucleon interactions.
Upon a return, the trainee will continue to work in the group of hadron and baryon systems of the NPI Department of Theoretical Physics, under the leadership of Dr. Jiří Mareš.
Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), Villingen, Switzerland
Mentor: prof. Marco Schippers
Subjects of the stay are following: study of the dynamics of the beam of accelerated particles and cooperation in the optimization of the parameters of an internal ion source of the Penning type for a medical cyclotron within the COMET program, dynamics modeling on OPAL software developed in PSI, measurement of ion source parameters on a test device that imitated the conditions in the central region of a medical cyclotron. The analysis of the obtained data will be used to optimize the working conditions with regard to the stability of the parameters and the lifetime of the ion source.
The obtained information will be used and further disseminated at the NPI Department of Accelerators, especially for the cyclotron U-120M. The results of the research will have a direct impact on the development of new cyclotrons and modifying those existing ones used in medical facilities.
Departament de Física Cuantica i Astrofísica, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain
Mentor: prof. Angela Ramos
Subjects of the stay are following: Introduction to the theoretical procedures developed at the department and their application in the study of meson behavior in the nuclear environment, description of interactions of mesons with one or more nucleons at low and medium energies within a unified microscopic approach using efficient chiral models, including symmetry and dynamics of QCD. In the Barcelona group, they develop their own chiral model, which they are constantly expanding and applying to the description of various processes with kaons.
Upon a return, the trainee will continue to work in the group of hadron and baryon systems of the NPI Department of Theoretical Physics, under the leadership of Dr. Jiří Mareš.
Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research in Europe GmbH (FAIR), Darmstadt, Germany
Mentor: Tetyana Galatyuk
Main subject of the stay is following: preparation of a new detector – ECAL electromagnetic calorimeter – for measurement in the experiment HADES, FAIR phase 0. This means commissiong and calibration of the detector, its testing using space muons. The trainee will also participate in the HADES experiment itself and begin the analysis of physical data. In this way, he or she will get acquainted with the entire life cycle of the experiment. HADES specializes in measuring di-electron pairs from nucleon-nucleon collisions, proton-nucleus collisions, and nuclei-nuclei collisions. ECAL is designed for world-unique measurements of the production of neutral mesons in heavy ion collisions in the energy range 2-10 AGeV, to improve electron-hadron separation and to measure gamma photons originating from resonances. It will make it possible to clarify the state of matter in collisions and still inaccessible phenomena.
In the return phase, the employee will be involved in the activities of the group of relativistic heavy ion collisions from the NPI Department of Nuclear Spectroscopy, headed by Dr. Andrej Kugler.
Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research GmbH, Planckstr. 1, 64291 Darmstadt, Germany
Universitat de Barcelona, Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes 585, 08007 Barcelona, Spain
Paul Scherrer Institute, 5232 Villigen, Switzerland
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 91904 Jerusalem, Israel
Project Manager:
Ing. Ondřej Svoboda, Ph.D.
tel.: +420 220 941 147
e-mail: svoboda@ujf.cas.cz
