History

  The first period of existence of the department (up to 1980) was dominated by participation in the bubble chamber  experiments  performed  at accelerators in JINR Dubna and IHEP Serpukhov, Russia.

    At  the  beginning  of  the seventies a fully automatized measuring system for bubble chamber pictures processing  was built up in our laboratory. At the same time the full  chain of the CERN off-line bubble chamber software was implemented in Košice. These possibilities were used effectively for contribiting towards the broad programme of experiments with  the  JINR one  meter  hydrogen  bubble  chamber,  irradiated  at  Dubna synchrophasotron in the beams of relativistic  light  nuclei ³He, ⁴He, polarized deuterons. The mechanism of  a  number of exclusive processes was studied; an  indication  of  the dibaryon states has been obtained.

    From  the  beginning  of the  1980’s  our  interests shifted towards electronic experiments. Very important for acquiring experience in this field was participation in  the HYPERON experiment at Serpukhov (study of  binary  reactions with hypercharge exchange, study of the A-dependence of  the inclusive h-meson production).

    From 1987 a group of our scientists started  to  participate in the preparation of the H1 set-up for experiments at HERA at DESY (Hamburg, Germany). A large amount of the read-out boards  for  the  liquid  argon  calorimeter was  produced. We designed and realized  the  trigger  electronics for identification of electrons in the backward  electromagnetic calorimeter. Long term participation in the experiments at HERA is one of the most important present activities.

    Another important present activity is connected with participation in the experimental programme at the  European Organisation for Nuclear Research CERN (Geneva, Switzerland). Starting with individual participation in the NA34  (Helios) experiment in 1984, we were focusing on participation in the heavy ion programme at the SPS accelerator. A significant part of our present interests is connected  with preparation for the LHC programme.