Vol 80, No 10 (2017)

Among various types of Cherenkov detectors (solid, liquid and gaseous) created for different studies, the most impressive development was gained by water detectors: from the first detector with a volume of several liters in which the Cherenkov radiation was discovered, to the IceCube detector with a volume of one cubic kilometer. The review of the development of Cherenkov water detectors for various purposes and having different locations − ground-based, underground and underwater–is presented in the paper. The prospects of their further development are also discussed.

A model is proposed to calculate pre-precipitate nucleation rate in supersaturated solid solutions under cascade-forming irradiation. Estimates of the rate of nucleation of copper-enriched clusters in Fe–Cu solid solutions with a copper concentration of 0.05–0.18 at. % due to reactor irradiation are carried out. A comparison with the experimental data on irradiation of structural materials shows that the formation of precipitate nuclei takes place in the cascade region involved at the final stages of cascade relaxation, whose volume is about two times higher than the cascade volume at the dynamic stage.

This article presents the results of comparative studies of mechanical properties and microstructure of nuclear fuel tubes and semifinished stainless steel items fabricated by consolidation of rapidly quenched powders and by conventional technology after high-temperature exposures at 600 and 700°C. Tensile tests of nuclear fuel tube ring specimens of stainless austenitic steel of grade AISI 316 and ferritic–martensitic steel are performed at room temperature. The microstructure and distribution of carbon and boron are analyzed by metallography and autoradiography in nuclear fuel tubes and semifinished items. Rapidly quenched powders of the considered steels are obtained by the plasma rotating electrode process. Positive influence of consolidation of rapidly quenched powders on mechanical properties after high-temperature aging is confirmed. The correlation between homogeneous distribution of carbon and boron and mechanical properties of the considered steel is determined. The effects of thermal aging and degradation of the considered steels are determined at 600°C and 700°C, respectively.

In this paper we consider the motion of relativistic electrons in an ideal three-dimensional magnetic field of an undulator. The ideality of the magnetic field means that, on the undulator axis, the field is directed strictly vertically upward and has a strictly sinusoidal shape. In the overwhelming majority of cases, only this leading component of the field is taken into account in calculating the electron trajectory. In this paper, in the equations of motion of an electron in the magnetic field of an undulator, all three components of the field are taken into account, so that the undulator field under consideration satisfies the stationary Maxwell equations. In this case, the differential equations of motion of the electron are solved analytically with the help of perturbation theory, and not by the method of averaging over fast oscillations of the electron, as was done in a number of previous papers. These analytic expressions for trajectories describe the behavior of particles in the focusing magnetic field of an undulator much more completely. An analysis of these expressions shows that the behavior of electrons in such a three-dimensional field of the undulator is much more complicated than what follows from the equations obtained by the averaging method. In particular, there is a cross effect when changes in the initial vertical parameters of the electron trajectory cause changes in the horizontal component of its trajectory and vice versa. A comparison of the solutions obtained analytically with the results of numerical calculations of electron trajectories using the Runge–Kutta method demonstrates their high accuracy.

Detectors with hemispherical geometry are used to eliminate the contribution from the hole component to the signal of a detector based on a compound semiconductor operating at room temperature. In this work, the random process of charge induction on electrodes of a detector with hemispherical geometry is theoretically considered with allowance for capture of electrons by traps. Formulas are obtained for the first two moments of the distribution function for the induced charge on the detector electrodes. These formulas help analyze the contribution of the electron transport in detectors with hemispherical geometry.

The characteristics of two modifications of the semiconductor (s.c.d.) setup consisting of telescopes on the basis of silicon detectors are presented. These settings allow performing a precision measurement of energy in a large dynamic range (from a few to hundreds of MeV) and particle identification in a wide range of masses. The issues of measurement of the characteristics of s.c.d. telescopes and their impact on the quality of the obtained experimental data are considered. Considerable attention is paid to the use of created semiconductor devices for the search for and spectroscopy of light exotic nuclei on the accelerators of PNPI (Gatchina) and LANL (Los Alamos).

BM@N (Baryonic Matter at Nuclotron) is the first experiment to be realized at the NICA-Nuclotron accelerator complex. The aim of the BM@N experiment is to study relativistic heavy ion beam interactions with fixed targets. The BM@N setup, results of Monte Carlo simulations, and the BM@N experimental program are presented.

The paper is devoted to the data analysis on the amplitude-time regularities of the dynamic failure process of solids under various types of high-intensity impact in the ranges of nonequilibrium states from 3 × 10⁻¹⁰ to 10⁻⁵ s and establishing general regularities of behavior of unstudied materials under extreme conditions. We have analyzed the process of dynamic destruction of solids of different nature using the method of magnetic-pulse loading in the microsecond range of nonequilibrium states, as well as the dynamic failure process for a number of metals in the mode of pulsed volume heating under the action of pulsed relativistic electron beams in the nanosecond and subnanosecond range of nonequilibrium states. It has been shown that, upon using different methods of pulsed loading in the dynamic longevity range, the failure time as a function of amplitude of applied load has an exponential form for various solid materials. This indicates the scaling nature of the destruction process. The foregoing determines the possibility of predicting the behavior of unstudied solid bodies in the dynamic range of nonequilibrium states.

The latest results of searching for exotic multiquark states with heavy quarks obtained in the D0 experiment (Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, USA) are presented. In particular, the evidence of existence of a possible four-quark state X(5568) → B_s⁰ π^±in the cases with hadronic and semileptonic decay channels of B_s⁰ meson is considered, as well as the results of searching for the five-quark states in the J/ψΛ system.