Announcements

The experimental physics division (EPD) at Yerevan Physics Institute (YerPhI) established in 1943 by Artem Alikhanian (one of the founders and first director of YerPhI) and recently named by Hamlet Vartapetian (Deputy Director of YerPhI in 1974-1993), traditionally is active in a range of experiments studying the fundamental constituents of matter by scattering of photons and electrons from proton and nuclear targets. Current research in high energy physics includes studies of p-p/A interactions using the LHC at CERN (ATLAS, CMS and ALICE experiments), studies of the structure of hadrons and electromagnetic interaction properties with high energy electrons and photons in close collaboration with researchers at Jefferson Lab (Halls A, B , C, D) and at DESY in Hamburg. EPD is involved in studies of very high energy gamma ray astrophysics in collaboration with researchers at HESS, CTA.

Research groups of EPD are active also in studies of fission and fragmentation of nuclei with real and virtual photon beams, low energy nuclear physics based on AANL's electron linear accelerator LUE-75 and proton beam of the Cyclone-18. Search of rare processes in underground laboratory of Avan salt mine is also carried out.

EPD groups are involved in methodic studies: plastic scintillators, substrates for nuclear targets, NaJ(Tl) detectors, neutron detectors, microstrip silicone detectors, RF phototube, low-pressure MWPC.  Synthesis, research and application of new derivatives of chitosan are also studied.

Cosmic Ray Division physicists perform research in almost all areas of the Astroparticle physics. Amongst them are CR Origin and acceleration mechanisms, Solar-terrestrial connections; solar modulation of galactic CRs, Acceleration of protons on Sun, High Energy phenomena in Atmosphere, Thunderstorm Ground Enhancements (TGEs), Lightning physics, Monitoring of geophysical parameters, Scientific instrumentation, Multivariate data analysis. 

Among the main achievements of recent years are the discovery of energetic protons (with energies greater than 20 GeV) accelerated in the vicinity of the Sun during Ground Level Enhancement (GLE) event N69; simultaneous fluxes of electrons, gamma rays and neutrons measured at mountain altitudes; proving the existence of the new high-energy phenomenon (TGEs) in the thunderstorm atmospheres; the “Cloud Extensive Showers - CESs”. Also, a notable achievement is the registration of long-lasting radiation from the thunderclouds (up to several hours).

Development of the Aragats Space Environmental Center (ASEC), Armenian Geophysics Network in Armenia and Artsakh and founding of the worldwide network of new particle detectors named SEVAN (Space Environment Viewing and Analysis Network) were the key fulfillments of the recent years. Nodes of the SEVAN network are now operating in Armenia, India, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovakia and Czech Republic. Besides these achievements introducing of new model of lightning initiation was a step forward for this field of researches.

CP&IT division is providing the activities in the following directions: The whole YerPhI related activities such as YerPhI Network support and developmentand ITC Services Support: Permanent (wired & wireless) routing and switching multiprotocol connectivity; Managed and guarantied bandwidth; Access to Armenian Scientific Research Computer Network & Armenian Grid; Domain Name Service (DNS); E-Mail services (SMTP, POP, IMAP), Webmail, Mailing Lists Basic Services; WWW(HTTP,HTTPS); Internet accessible Information and Database Systems; Secure Data Transmission (VPN, SSH, SFTP, SSL, S-tunnel); Remote Administration; Web Hosting; Server/Router installation and maintenance; Archive, Backup, Data Storage and data Preservation; Antivirus, Antispam, Antispyware support; Voice and Video Conferencing (Policom HDX 6000); SIP VoIP Telephone Service (Asterisk); WiFi And Eduroam (education roaming) world-wide Wifi roaming access service for international research and education community.; Video media server (Open Meetings); Document Server (Invenio CERN/IAEA)High-Performance Computing; Grid Clusters; Batch Clusters; Storage Servers; Users support; IT training for Yerphi Staff; Users Support & ConsultingThe important scientific sub-direction is the Physics Analysis based on experimental data obtained by different international collaborations (HERMES, OLYMPUS and soon Belle2)One more sub-direction of the CP&IT activities is related to the computational physics, namely to the random number generators development and statistical testing, as well to Monte Carlo method applications.

Isotopes Research and Production Department was created in 2010. The department activity is devoted mainly to creation and development of production of radioactive isotopes for medical purposes.

During the first years ^99mTc and ¹²³I photo-production technology development and trial production on LUE 50 linear electron accelerator of ANSL (Yerphi) had been done. Since 2013 ^99mTc full chain production technology development using enriched ¹⁰⁰Mo target on IBA C18 cyclotron was started,  including target preparation, target cooling system, extraction of ^99mTc from irradiated material and expensive ¹⁰⁰Mo target material recovery. Also researches of other medical isotopes (⁶⁷Ga, ⁶⁸Ga, ⁶⁷Cu and ⁶⁴Cu) production on IBA C18 cyclotron are started.

Applied physics group has the self-supporting activities, on a fully commercial basis, including modification of plastic insulation tubes on the high-intensity  beam linear accelerator (up to 4 MeV) for the cable industry.X-Ray instrumentation group activity concentrated on the development of a 3D image X-ray digital registration system, including development of thin film scintillators YAG:Ce and GGG:Ce, development of large area image detectors with spatial resolution 50 mkm and development of X-ray digital imaging systems, also for investigation of radiation hardness of scintillyator depends on heavy metal concentration.

Center for Cosmology and Astrophysics is traditionally concentrated on nonlinear problems of cosmology, including advanced numerical methods for description of evolution of perturbed Hamiltonian systems, stability of gravitating systems, N-body chaos, non-random structures and universal compression in signals. Studies involve cosmic microwave background radiation, conformal cyclic cosmology, time arrow, modified gravity and dark sector. Applications include coding and mutations in genomic sequences (US patent received).

Recent activities include participation in LARES (LAser RElativity Satellite, Italian Space Agency) satellite project on high precision testing of General Relativity, initiation and successful probing of Lorentz invariance at European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (Grenoble); results become reference numbers for theory. Reports are at Solvay conference on physics, IAU General Assembly, Swiss Biennial on Science, Technics and Aesthetics, Clay Mathematics Institute, Oxford and other noted forums. Most of ongoing studies are performed in collaboration with noted centers.