The High Energy Cosmic Ray Observatory (HERO) is an experimental design for the direct study of cosmicrays based on the use of an ultra-heavy ionization calorimeter. The effective geometric factor of the facilitywill be at least 12 2sr for cosmic-ray protons and at least 16–20 2sr for nuclei and electrons. During 5–7 years of exposure, this mission will make it possible to measure the energy spectra of all common andrare cosmic-ray nuclei in the energy region 1012–1016 eV/particle with element-by-element resolution ofthe charge of nuclei and with sufficiently high energy resolution. It is planned to study not only the chargerange of cosmic-ray nuclei Z=1−26, but also the detection of super-heavy nuclei beyond the iron peak,as well as high-energy electrons, positrons and gamma rays. The main objectives, design appearance andcharacteristics of the space mission are discussed.

We report an improved measurement of the valence u and d quark distributions from the forward-backward asymmetry in the Drell-Yan process using 8.6 fb(-1) of data collected with the D0 detector in p (p) over bar collisions at root s = 1.96. This analysis provides the values of new structure parameters that are directly related to the valence up and down quark distributions in the proton. In other experimental results measuring the quark content of the proton, d quark contributions are mixed with those from other quark flavors. In this measurement, the u and d quark contributions are separately extracted by applying a factorization of the QCD and electroweak portions of the forward-backward asymmetry.

The DPS-NICA project has been developed to solve the urgent problem of measuring the radiation resistance of the electronic component base (ECB) of a spacecraft (SC) in outer space. To solve this problem, good coordinate resolution is required, which cannot be achieved without aligning the planes of the facility detectors. This article presents a methodology that allows it to be carried out based on experimental data.

The High Energy Cosmic Ray Observatory (HERO) is an experimental design for the direct study of cosmic rays based on the use of an ultraheavy ionization calorimeter. The effective geometric factor of the facility will be at least 12 m ^2 sr for cosmic-ray protons and at least 16–20 m ^2 sr for nuclei and electrons. During 5–7 years of exposure, this mission will allow measuring the energy spectra of all common and rare cosmic-ray nuclei in the energy range of 10^12-10^16 eV/particle with element-by-element resolution of the charge of nuclei and with sufficiently high energy resolution. It is planned to study not only the cosmic ray nuclei with charges Z=1-26 , but also the superheavy nuclei beyond the iron peak, as well as high-energy electrons, positrons, and gamma rays. The main objectives, design appearance, and characteristics of the space mission are discussed.

A spectrometer allowing recording nuclear reaction products characteristic of boron—proton radiotherapy technologies is developed. A hardware-software system of the spectrometer allows identifying alpha particles and other light products of nuclear reactions in the energy range of 0.5 MeV—10 MeV is presented. The spectrometer was tested at the Prometeus proton accelerator of the Physico-Technical Center (PTC) LPI (Protvino) and the HELIS installation of the LPI (Moscow). The spectrometer applicability to the study of the p + 11B → 3α nuclear reaction at protons energies used in proton therapy is shown.

In this paper the dependence of the spectra of cosmic ray nuclei on the charges of nuclei was studied, according to the data of the NUCLEON space experiment. First, we studied the dependence of the spectral index of magnetic rigidity spectra on the charge for abundant nuclei. Secondly, for the charge range $Z=9\div20$, the differences in the total spectra of rare odd and abundant even nuclei were studied. Using the GALPROP package, the inverse problem of CR propagation from a source (near supernova) to an observer was solved, a component-by-component spectrum in the source was reconstructed, and it was shown that a systematic change in the spectral index in the source exist. It is supposed that this change may be interpreted as incomplete ionization of cosmic rays at the stage of acceleration in the supernova remnant shock. The ratio of the total spectra of magnetic rigidity for low-abundance odd and abundant even nuclei from the charge range $Z=9\div20$ is obtained, and it was shown that the spectra of odd rare nuclei are harder than the stpectra of abundat even nuclei in the rigidity range 300--10000~GV.

Results of great astrophysical importance are obtained in processing data collected in the NUCLEON space experiment. The GALPROP package is used to solve the inverse problem of cosmic ray (CR) propagation from a source (a nearby supernova) to the observer. A component-by-component spectrum of the source is plotted, and a systematic change in its spectral index is revealed. This can be interpreted as incomplete ionization of cosmic rays at the moment they are accelerated at the front of the supernova’s shock wave. Fluxes of nitrogen nuclei and the total spectrum of rare nuclei with odd charges of 9 to 19 (F, Na, Al, P, Cl, K) are investigated in analyzing the spectra in terms of magnetic rigidity. The ratios of the flows of odd and even nuclei are plotted. The spectrum of rare odd nuclei is found to be harder than that of abundant even nuclei (Z = 10–20) in the 300–10 000 GV range of magnetic rigidities.

The article discusses the “MODULATION” project, which is supposed to be implemented aboard the Russian space station ROSS. The purpose of the space mission is to study the solar modulation of galactic cosmic rays (GCR) in the heliosphere. A new approach is presented to obtain accurate long-term measurements of GCR particle fluxes, as well as solar cosmic rays (SCR), with energies from 30 to 1500 MeV/nucleon in the wide charge range $$Z=1-26$$ . The project describes a new method for measuring the energy of cosmic particles, which makes it possible to create a lightweight and compact but precision instrumentation that will allow measuring not only the energy but also the direction of arrival of cosmic rays. The project involves the creation of a data bank of GCR and SCR data for the entire solar activity cycle. Such a bank is necessary to improve numerical models of the fluxes of energetic heliospheric particles.

The High-Energy Ray Observatory (HERO) is a space experiment based on a heavy ionization calorimeter for direct study of cosmic rays. The effective geometrical factor of the apparatus varies from 12 to 60 m$^2$sr for protons depending on the weight of the calorimeter from 10 to 70 tons. During the exposure for $\sim$5 years this mission will make it possible to measure energy spectra of all abundant cosmic ray nuclei in the knee region ($\sim$3 PeV) with individual resolution of charges with energy resolution better than 30\% and provide useful information to solve the puzzle of the cosmic ray knee origin. HERO mission will make it also possible to measure energy spectra of cosmic rays nuclei for energies 1-1000 TeV with very high precision and energy resolution (up to 3\% for calorimeter 70 tons) and study the fine structure of the spectra. The planned experiment launch is no earlier than 2029.

First physics results of the BM@N experiment at the Nuclotron/NICA complex are presented on π+ and K+ meson production in interactions of an argon beam with fixed targets of C, Al, Cu, Sn and Pb at 3.2 A GeV. Transverse momentum distributions, rapidity spectra and multiplicities of π+ and K+ mesons are measured. The results are compared with predictions of theoretical models and with other measurements at lower energies.

The article considers an electronic circuit that, in some cases, makes it possible to significantly reduce the number of readout channels in a silicon coordinate detector based on a matrix of p–i–n structures (strip- or pad-type) without a loss in the coordinate measurement accuracy. The electronic circuit is a chain of external capacitors that connect the structures of the detector. When one of the structures is hit, a signal propagates along the chain of capacitors of the capacitive divider to the nearest readout channels and it is possible to determine the original number of the hit structure by the change in the signal value. The proposed circuit was mathematically simulated for typical parameters of the detector and readout electronics. The mathematical model allowed us to optimize the circuit parameters depending on the parameters of the detector and readout electronics. The simulation results are confirmed by experimental measurements on several prototypes of the device. It is shown that, in certain application cases, when a detector signal is high enough, e.g., when nuclei with Z > 6 are registered, one can achieve, by using standard low-noise operational amplifiers, the accurate recovery of the number of the hit structure in the chain consisting of at least 30 structures by reading only two extreme structures.

The article discusses the importance of nuclear fragmentation processes for describing the propagation of cosmic rays, as well as for solving practically important problems of increasing the radiation resistance of spacecraft on-board electronics. There is a lack of experimental data on low-energy interactions of protons and nuclei. For the experimental study of fragmentation processes, it is proposed to carry out an experiment with heavy ion beams. Alongside the study of the radiation resistance of the electronic component base of spacecraft, it is proposed to measure the effective cross sections for the production of secondary isotopes during the interaction of cosmic ray protons with spacecraft materials and the electronic component base.

The Nuclotron-based Ion Collider fAcility (NICA) is under construction at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR), with commissioning of the facility expected in late 2022. The Multi-Purpose Detector (MPD) has been designed to operate at NICA and its components are currently in production. The detector is expected to be ready for data taking with the first beams from NICA. This document provides an overview of the landscape of the investigation of the QCD phase diagram in the region of maximum baryonic density, where NICA and MPD will be able to provide significant and unique input. It also provides a detailed description of the MPD set-up, including its various subsystems as well as its support and computing infrastructures. Selected performance studies for particular physics measurements at MPD are presented and discussed in the context of existing data and theoretical expectations.

The NUCLEON space observatory was developed to measure the spectra of cosmic ray nuclei with individual charge resolution in the energy range of several TeV to 1 PeV per particle. The NUCLEON was launched into a heliosynchronous orbit as an additional load on the Resurs-2P production satellite on December 28, 2014, and it is still in operation (2019). This work is a brief review of the results from the NUCLEON observatory over three years of operation in orbit. The spectra of the main primary abundant nuclei and product nuclei of cosmic rays (CRs) are presented. Some new interesting features of the CR spectra found in the NUCLEON data are discussed.

The cosmic ray all-particles spectrum is a very important result obtained by the NUCLEON space experiment. This spectrum was directly measured up to energies near 500 TeV. The ground-based experiments provide very large statistics but their results depend on applied models. The NUCLEON experiment allows comparison with results of direct measurements and data of ground-based experiments. The all-particles spectrum is presented. The shape of this spectrum differs from the power-law dependence. We show in this paper that this feature is caused by a pre-knee softening found in the rigidity spectra measured by the NUCLEON experiment. The all-particles spectrum is close to the data from ground-based experiments HAWC and TAIGA.(c) 2022 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

We describe an analysis comparing the pp[over ¯] elastic cross section as measured by the D0 Collaboration at a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV to that in pp collisions as measured by the TOTEM Collaboration at 2.76, 7, 8, and 13 TeV using a model-independent approach. The TOTEM cross sections, extrapolated to a center-of-mass energy of sqrt[s]=1.96  TeV, are compared with the D0 measurement in the region of the diffractive minimum and the second maximum of the pp cross section. The two data sets disagree at the 3.4σ level and thus provide evidence for the t-channel exchange of a colorless, C-odd gluonic compound, also known as the odderon. We combine these results with a TOTEM analysis of the same C-odd exchange based on the total cross section and the ratio of the real to imaginary parts of the forward elastic strong interaction scattering amplitude in pp scattering for which the significance is between 3.4σ and 4.6σ. The combined significance is larger than 5σ and is interpreted as the first observation of the exchange of a colorless, C-odd gluonic compound.

I discuss several novel and unexpected aspects of quantum chromodynamics. These include: (a) the nonperturbative origin of intrinsic strange, charm and bottom quarks in the nucleon at large x; the breakdown of pQCD factorization theorems due to the lensing effects of initialand final-state interactions; (b) important corrections to pQCD scaling for inclusive reactions due to processes in which hadrons are created at high transverse momentum directly in the hard processes and their relation to the baryon anomaly in high-centrality heavy-ion collisions; and (c) the nonuniversality of quark distributions in nuclei. I also discuss some novel theoretical perspectives in QCD: (a) lightfront holography – a relativistic color-confining first approximation to QCD based on the AdS/CFT correspondence principle; (b) the principle of maximum conformality – a method which determines the renormalization scale at finite order in perturbation theory yielding scheme independent results; (c) the replacement of quark and gluon vacuum condensates by “in-hadron condensates” and how this helps to resolves the conflict between QCD vacuum and the cosmological constant.

In this paper, the authors present the composition of a prototype of the Detector Part of the Station (DPS) that uses a novel method for studying the integrated circuit durability to single-event effects (SEEs) during operation in outer space. The prototype operability is verified using Monte Carlo simulation.