Multipurpose Detector MPD for the Study of Strongly Interacting Matter at the NICA Collider

A new accelerator complex NICA (Nuclotron-based Ion Collider facility) for the study of the collisions of heavy ions and polarized particles is under construction at JINR (Dubna, Russia). The main goal of the NICA physics program is the experimental investigation of the strongly interacting matter phase diagram in the poorly explored region of the maximal baryon density. As the experimental strategy, a detailed energy and system size scan will be performed with an emphasis to the yields, rapidity spectra, transverse momentum a well as azimuthal angle distributions for multiple probes from gammas to hypernuclei. In order to fulfill all project’s goals, the multipurpose detector MPD is designed as a high acceptance spectrometer allowing full reconstruction of high multiplicity events. In this paper, the MPD project at NICA is described, including the MPD physics cases, the MPD design and the status of project’s realization.