Data taking has been started at the first stage of the SPASCHARM experiment on systematic study of the spin effects in strong interactions. The current setup configuration is described, and the detector characteristics attained during the beam data taking in the runs of 2018–2022 are listed.

The SPASCHARM experiment is aimed at a systematic study of the nucleon spin structure and the spin dependence of the strong interaction of antimatter and matter with matter at energies up to 45 GeV. As part of the first stage of the experiment, the study of the spin properties of hadrons will take place in a beam of negatively charged hadrons on existing beamline 14 at the operating SPASCHARM setup at the U70 facility. At the second stage, the production of polarized beams of protons and antiprotons is envisaged in beamline 24A of the U-70 accelerator facility. A polarized antiproton beam will certainly become a unique beam in the world. It is planned to measure single-spin asymmetries in dozens of reactions, both on hydrogen and on various nuclei. At the SPASCHARM facility, it is also possible to measure the transverse polarization of hyperons and elements of the spin density matrix of vector mesons. The spin structure of the nucleon will be investigated in the study of quarkonium production to determine the contribution of gluons to the proton spin. The presence of two types of polarized beams and eight types of nonpolarized beams (π ± , K ± , p , p̅ , d , C ), in combination with a polarized target, expands the range of studies of polarization phenomena and enhances the uniqueness of the project.

(SVD-2 Collaboration) A. G. Afonin, E. N. Ardashev, V. F. Golovkin, S. N. Golovnya, S. A. Gorokhov, A. A. Kiryakov, A. G. Kholodenko, V. V. Konstantinov, L. L. Kurchaninov, I. S. Lobanov, E. V. Lobanova, G. A. Mitrofanov, V. S. Petrov, A. V. Pleskach, M. K. Polkovnikov, V. N. Riadovikov*, V. N. Ronzhin, V. A. Senko,N. A. Shalanda, M. M. Soldatov, Yu. P. Tsyupa, A. P. Vorobiev, V. I. Yakimchuk, and V. N. Zapolskii∗ IHEP, Protvino, Moscow region, Russia.

The general architecture and characteristics of the readout electronic system for the vertex detector of the SVD-2 setup at the U-70 accelerator (Kurchatov Institute NRC−IHEP, Protvino) are presented. The SVD-2 setup is intended to study near-threshold charmed-particle production at energies of 50–70 GeV, as well as many-particle processes and collective behavior of particles. The key characteristics of the electronic modules developed for the SVD setup by the Kurchatov Institute NRC−IHEP are briefly described.

The control system for the detectors of the SPASCHARM experimental setup that is being developed at the U-70 accelerator complex (Protvino) is described. The general design concept of the control system and an example of application of the EPICS software are considered. The electronic modules of the control system that have been put in operation as of the present are described.

The description and main performance characteristics of a fast-acting gated 48-channel charge-to-digital converter module of the EuroMISS readout electronics are presented. This module is designed to construct electronic systems for data readout from multichannel detectors in high-energy physics. The maximum measurable charge is 1000 or 330 pC, the dynamic range is 12 bits, the conversion time is 1.3 μs, and the integral nonlinearity of conversion is 0.05%.

Analog-to-digital converter chips used in the Cockcroft−Walton generators of the forward calorimeter in the PANDA experiment have been tested for radiation hardness in γ-ray and neutrons fields. The radiation hardness of temperature sensors under exposure to a neutron flux has also been investigated.

The LE-73 and LE-78 modules of MISS system designed for readout and recording of signals from multiwire chambers and hodoscopes are described. The use of an Altera FPGA provides a means for producing different modifications of the modules and adapting their operation to specific requirements of experimental setups. Owing to the availability of a high-speed internal memory, it is possible to design time-to-digital converters with a “common stop” and a 5-ns step and to store data in an internal FIFO memory.

The results of an analysis of data from the SERP-Е-184 experiment devoted to studying mechanisms of the production of charmed particles in proton–nucleus interactions at 70 GeV and their decays are presented. The data in question were obtained upon irradiating the SVD-2 active target consisting of carbon, silicon, and lead plates with a beam of 70-GeV protons. A detailed simulation on the basis of the FRITIOF7.02 and GEANT3.21 code packages made it possible to optimize event-selection criteria and to calculate the detection efficiency for Λ c + baryons. After selecting a signal from the threebody decay of a Λ c + baryon, the inclusive cross section for its production at near-threshold energies, its lifetime, and the parameter of the A dependence of the cross section were found. The Λ c + -baryon yields are tabulated along with data from other experiments and theoretical predictions.

The on-chamber electronic system of a muon tomograph is described. The system is composed of an MT-48 48-channel front-end module and an RMT-48 fan-out module for the multiplication of control signals. The data-acquisition structure for the Muon Tomograph device is presented.

A data acquisition system of the OKA experiment on studying rare kaon decays on the U-70 accelerator is described. The basis of the blocked data acquisition system was the high-speed multichannel information system MISS with autonomous controllers that read out the front-end electronics in the sequential data reading mode and buffering data during the accelerator burst. Data stored in the buffer memory are read out and processed at the end of the accelerator burst. The DATE package builds subevents from event fragments and events from subevents via the event building network. The event building network with the star topology is made with 1GbE-interfaces and 24 × 1 Gb E-switch. The GlusterFS cluster file system underlies the distributed storage system.

A new experiment SPASCHARM for systematic study of polarization phenomena in inclusive and exclusive hadronic reactions is currently under commissioning at IHEP. The universal experimental setup will detect dozens of various resonances and stable particles produced in collisions of unpolarized beams with the polarized target, and at the next stage, using polarized beams. At the first stage with polarized target, the final states composed of light quarks (u, d, s) will be reconstructed. Hyperon polarization and spin density matrix elements of the vector mesons will be measured along with the single-spin asymmetries. The 2π-acceptance in azimuth, which is extremely useful for reduction of systematic errors in measurements of spin observables, will be implemented in the experiment. The solid angle acceptance of the setup, Δθ≈250 mrad vertically and 350 mrad horizontally in the beam fragmentation region, covers a wide range of kinematic variables pT and xF. This provides the opportunity for separating dependences on these two variables which is usually not possible in the setups with a small solid angle acceptance. Unlike some previous polarization experiments, the SPASCHARM will be able to simultaneously accumulate and record data on the both, charged and neutral particle production.

High-speed 64- and 128-channel modules of time-to-digital converters with a picosecond time resolution and programmable parameters are described. The modules are based on HPTDC1.3 integrated circuits and Altera FPGAs in the framework of the IHEP-standardized high-speed multichannel information system (MISS) and a new EuroMISS electronics system.

Описана система накамерной электроники мюонного томографа: 48-канальный регистрирующий модуль МТ-48 и разветвитель сигналов канала управления РМТ-48. Приведена организация сбора информации установки “Мюонный томограф”.

Описана конструкция калориметра мягких фотонов установки СВД-2. Апертура прибора 210 × 210 мм. Приведены первые результаты его испытания в ходе физического набора статистики в эксперименте E-190 на ускорителе У-70 ИФВЭ.

The design of the soft photon calorimeter for the SVD-2 experiment is described. The aperture of the calorimeter is 210 × 210 mm. The first results of its testing in the course of data acquisition in the E-190 experiment at the U-70 accelerator of the Institute for High Energy Physics are presented.