The 6th Meeting of the Multi-Purpose Detector (MPD) Collaboration took place at the Veksler and Baldin Laboratory of High Energy Physics in a videoconference format from 28 to 30 October 2020. At the beginning of the meeting, VBLHEP Director, Leader of the NICA project Vladimir Kekelidze welcomed participants of the meeting. He reported that despite the complicated pandemic situation, intensive work on the construction of the collider facility continued in several key areas, such as civil construction, preparation of services and general facilities. Vladimir Kekelidze wished the participants successful work and noted that the MPD superconducting solenoid magnet which had been recently delivered from Italy to the port of St. Petersburg, would be in Dubna in the first week of November. “It is a big milestone!” noted Itzhak Tserruya, the chairman of the JINR Programme Advisory Committee for Particle Physics.

The next speaker, Sergey Kostromin presented a report on the progress of the creation of the NICA accelerator complex and described in detail the degree of completion of each of the numerous project elements. The Booster supporting accelerator, one of the main complex elements, is being tested and prepared to be launched this year. He also demonstrated the impressive results in other areas – in civil works, magnet assembly, cryogenic infrastructure, and power supply. The works are in full swing to provide the first Run at the NICA collider at the end of 2022.

A detailed report on the status of the MPD project was presented by the Spokesperson of the MPD Collaboration Adam Kisiel. He noted the steady growth of the international collaboration and active participation of MPD members in the preparation for physics analyses in the frames of the MPD Physics Working Groups. During recent weeks, a large number of presentations related to MPD were given at important scientific conferences, including more than 30 reports at the “RFBR grants for NICA” conference organized at JINR on October 20-23. All efforts of the participants are aimed at ensuring that the MPD detector is ready for the beam at the end of 2022. For this purpose, the MPD Stage I should be commissioned next year.

The plan of activities was described in detail by the MPD Technical Coordinator Viacheslav Golovatyuk. Detailed reports were given on the status of major detectors, such as the Time Projection Chamber (TPC), the Time-of-Flight (TOF) and Electromagnetic Calorimeter (ECal). An important milestone is the start of production of ECal modules by the Chinese Institutions, thanks to the recent agreement with the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology and the allocation of dedicated funding.

In the following day, detailed reports were given on the development of MPD software and computing infrastructure located at VBLHEP as well as at the Laboratory of Information Technologies of JINR.

The Institutional Board of MPD has approved the allocation of the Common Fund for the Collaboration and other important organizational matters during its session.

The last day of the meeting was devoted to in-depth reviews of activities in physics analyses planned for the initial operation of NICA. The convenors of the MPD Physics Working Groups, as well as several international collaborators, participated in the discussion.

In summary, during the 6th Meeting of the MPD Collaboration the obtained results, the status of works, and the ambitious plans for their implementation were discussed. The materials of the meeting are available via the link.

Almost 150 registered participants from Europe, Asia, and the Americas took part in the meeting, ensuring lively, interesting, and constructive discussions. The MPD project is on track to finish the construction of the detector and commence the commissioning of the apparatus in 2022.

Information by MPD Collaboration