On 5 March, a working meeting was held in Irkutsk, at which the status of the Baikal neutrino telescope project Baikal-GVD was discussed. The prospects for increasing the volume of the facility of the Baikal-GVD project and opportunities for expanding collaboration were discussed. The draft federal programme in the field of neutrino physics was presented to the participants. In addition, plans to develop the infrastructure of the Baikal territory and interdisciplinary research on Lake Baikal were announced.

The event was attended by representatives of universities involved in the implementation of the Baikal-GVD megascience project: Moscow, Novosibirsk, Kabardino-Balkarian State Universities and Tomsk Polytechnic University. The meeting was organized jointly by the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, the Institute for Nuclear Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI and Irkutsk State University.

Фото: © Иркутский государственный университет

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One of the key topics of the meeting was the development of the Federal scientific and technical research programme in the field of neutrino physics and particle astrophysics in Russia. According to the rector of NRNU MEPhI Vladimir Shevchenko, the draft programme was developed in 2022 and approved by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation in 2023.

“The top-level goal of this programme is for Russia to be among the five leading countries in the research area in neutrino physics and particle astrophysics by 2030. The programme includes both fundamental and applied research, separate topics on astrophysics and the search for dark matter, as well as personnel training,” Vladimir Shevchenko highlighted. The construction of the Baikal Neutrino Telescope and its achievement of a volume of 1.5-2 km3 is identified as the most important task of the programme. Also, among the key results of the programme is the deployment of the TAIGA facility over an area of 10 km2 and development of the Large Baksan Neutrino Telescope weighing 10 kilotons.

The programme was based on generalized proposals developed by seven research centres and five universities. JINR and the National Research Centre “Kurchatov Institute” became the leading organizations in the implementation of the programme. The working group for the preparation of priority projects for the neutrino programme included representatives of INR RAS, National Research Centre “Kurchatov Institute”, MEPhI, Moscow State University and JINR. On behalf of the Joint Institute, DLNP Deputy Director Dmitry Naumov takes part in the work of the group. Currently, organizations participating in the neutrino programme of the Russian Federation, including JINR, take part in a competition for grants from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation.

JINR Director Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Grigory Trubnikov proposed to develop a roadmap for the programme. “JINR, within the framework of its new seven-year programme of development, has prioritized the development of both the Baikal-GVD facility and low-background experiments in the field of neutrino physics and reactor neutrino topics,” he emphasized.

Expressing gratitude to the Government of the Russian Federation for supporting the programme, Grigory Trubnikov highlighted the expansion of the Baikal-GVD collaboration and the need to continue this process. JINR Director reported that over the past three years it has been possible to interest a number of leading universities in Russia in the subject of neutrino physics, essentially developing a personnel reserve of young scientists required for the further development of this area. Grigory Trubnikov proposed organizing a regular school of data analysis for large neutrino experiments within the framework of the neutrino programme.

JINR Scientific Leader Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Victor Matveev noted that the programme passport must pass the examination of the Russian Academy of Sciences. “We must not just proceed from the natural development of what we are doing today, but set an ambitious goal. This will require the allocation of funding commensurate with the scale of the tasks. This is serious work and you have to be prepared for it,” he said.

Grigory Trubnikov presented the participants with plans for the further development of the Baikal infrastructure of the Baikal-GVD project. “The project requires broad applied perspectives in areas such as electronics, energy, nature-based technologies, medicine, biology and IT. The facility should be leading and competitive for at least the next ten years,” he emphasized. JINR Director noted that the Baikal Neutrino Telescope, the largest in the Northern Hemisphere, confidently moves towards becoming the largest neutrino telescope in the world. However, when discussing plans and development prospects, it is necessary to take into account competing projects in which it is foreseen to develop the next generation of neutrino telescopes with a volume of about ten cubic kilometers.

At the meeting, reports were made by INR RAS staff. Zhan-Arys Dzhilkibaev spoke about the main scientific results of Baikal-GVD. Vladimir Ainutdinov – about the status of the mega-facility, Sergey Troitsky — about the prospects for high-energy neutrino astronomy and the contribution of the Baikal project to it.

Representatives of universities made several reports: on the prospects for cooperation and development of interdisciplinary research at Baikal-GVD, on the development of software and electronics for optical modules, on the investigation of the Baikal-GVD optical module in the NEVOD Cherenkov water detector, on the investigation of ultra-high-energy muons for the Baikal-GVD project, on the development of the technique of two-phase detectors for registration of low-energy neutrinos, others.

The participants of the meeting were presented with the project of the All-Russian Ecological Campus EKOTSEH — a competence centre for eco-tourism and environmentally-oriented development that is established in the city of Baikalsk. The participants of the meeting discussed the prospects for joint cooperation in the field of popularization of scientific knowledge in the region.

Feedback from participants was that the meeting was extremely useful and stimulating. The idea was put forward to organize a new annual conference on the prospects of multi-channel astronomy.

On 6 March, the participants of the meeting visited the ice camp at the site of the next expedition to deploy the Baikal-GVD deep-sea neutrino telescope.

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Photo: © Irkutsk State University