Time-Projection Chamber Development for the Multi-Purpose Detector in the NICA Project

Within the framework of the scientific program for the study of hot and dense nuclear matter in the Veksler and Baldin Laboratory of High Energy Physics of the Joint Institute of Nuclear Research, Dubna (JINR), the NICA megaproject (Nuclotron-based Ion Collider fAcility) based on the Nuclotron-M accelerator is implemented. The new accelerator facility will make it possible to research the properties of dense baryonic matter in the collision of heavy ions in a wide range of atomic masses from p–p collisions in the energy range √Spp = 12–27 GeV/n and d + d collisions with energies of √SNN = 4–13.8 GeV/n with the average luminosity L = 1032 cm–2 s–1 up to Au+79 + Au+79 collisions in the energy range √SNN = 4–11 GeV/n with the average luminosity L = 1027 cm–2 s–1 (Au+79). A collider provides two points of intersection of beams, in one of which the multipurpose detector (Multi-Purpose Detector, MPD) will be installed. The time-projection gas chamber (TPC) is the main tracking detector and the particle identifier of the Multi-Purpose Detector. The article considers the structure of the MPD, the design and the main working parameters of TPC and its subsystems. The front-end electronics (FEE), as well as the procedure for assembling and integrating the TPC into the MPD are discussed.