DEVELOPMENT OF STOCHASTIC COOLING TECHNIQUE FOR NICA PROJECT

Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) initiated the creation of a new and unique heavy-ion collider ± Nuclotron-based Ion Collider Facility (NICA), which is planned for commissioning in 2016. The luminosity in the colliding beams of gold ions is expected to reach 10 27 cm -2 s -1 . By estimations the luminosity will be mainly determined by the intra-beam scattering effect. To suppress this, a cooling system should be used. For the medium and high-energy heavy ions such as at NICA collider, stochastic cooling will be more efficient than electron cooling, so that system will be used in the collider. It was decided to construct a prototype stochastic cooling system, which can be tested at the Nuclotron in an early stage of the NICA project. A longitudinal stochastic cooling system was constructed in 2011. The report presents first experimental measurements and further developments of the stochastic cooling system.