Indian participation in the construction of the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) at Darmstadt, Germany

Abstract

India is a founder-member country to participate in the construction of the international multipurpose accelerator facility called the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) at Darmstadt, Germany. Bose Institute, Kolkata, has been designated as the Indian shareholder of the FAIR GmbH and the nodal Indian Institution for co-ordinating Indian participation in the FAIR programme. Indian participation in FAIR is twofold. Firstly, the advancement of knowledge in nuclear astrophysics and reaction, high-energy nuclear physics, atomic \& plasma physics and application through the participation of Indian researchers, engineers and students in various experiments planned at FAIR. In addition to this, India is also contributing high-tech accelerator equipment as in-kind contribution to FAIR. Our active involvement include the designing, manufacturing and supply of in-kind accelerator items e.g. power converters, vacuum chamber, beam catchers, IT diagnostic cables among them and coordinating the participation of Indian scientists in the FAIR experiments including detector development, physics simulation, experimental data analysis. Indian researchers have been participating in the two major experiments at FAIR, i.e. Nuclear Structure, Astrophysics and Reactions (NUSTAR) and Compressed Baryonic Matter (CBM) and in particular Bose Institute is involved in the CBM experiment, to study and characterize the matter created in the relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions at high net baryon density and relatively moderate temperature. In this article a brief overview on the FAIR facility, the experiments at FAIR and Indian participation are presented.