Booster synchrotron of NICA accelerator complex

NICA is a new accelerator complex being constructed at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research; the main task of this complex is to perform collider experiments for ion beams up to uranium with energies of up to 3.5 × 3.5 GeV/nucleon. This complex includes an electron string ion source, a 6 MeV/nucleon linear accelerator, a booster, the Nuclotron, and a collider with an average luminosity of 1027 cm2 s−1. The main tasks of the booster are to accumulate up to 4 × 109 197Au32+ ions, to accelerate to 600 MeV/nucleon (sufficient enough energy for completely stripping nuclei), to reduce the requirements of vacuum conditions for the Nuclotron, and to form the necessary beam emittance using an electron cooling system. The specific features of the NICA booster and the requirements for the basic systems of the synchrotron and their parameters are presented in this paper.