“Venedikt Petrovich Dzhelepov Was Always a Benchmark for Me”
Since 2009, Igor has been working at the Sector of Weak Interactions. He is involved in several experiments on neutrino physics the main of which are DANSS, studying reactor antineutrinos and searching for sterile neutrinos, and MONUMENT, studying ordinary muon capture on different isotopes in order to check nuclear matrix elements of double beta decays.
It was Evgeny Aleksandrovich Yakushev, the head of EDNSR, who nominated I. V. Zhitnikov for the scholarship competition. The work done by the competitor within the DANSS project was indicated in the application.
“I was fortunate to participate in the DANSS project from the very beginning. Together with my scientific supervisor Vyacheslav Georgievich Egorov, Doctor of Physics and Mathematics, we as a tiny team developed a prototype detector DANSSino in 2012 and performed a series of measurements first in the laboratory and then at the Kalinin NPP. The prototype detector was simple in design and easy to operate. I remember the beginning of my work at the nuclear power plant, it was incredible. In 2015, we assembled the main detector DANSS based on the prototype, and in 2016, measurements were launched. The experiment has been extending so far, and to run it now, a large team is needed. I believe I still understand all the processes within it.
Since 2012, a large volume of work has been done — 12 papers were published, and the next ones are in preparation. Recent papers are devoted to the results we have obtained at the detector. There are a lot of them, and it is an interesting physics.
The next experiment included in the application is MONUMENT. It is an experiment on measurement of ordinary muon capture on several isotopes at the Meson Factory of the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Switzerland. Igor Zhitnikov has been participating in the experiment since 2019. He is involved in preliminary data processing and partly in the analysis.
Igor answered the question about the plans for the upcoming year as follows,
“Next year, regular measurements at the Kalinin NPP within the DANSS project will go on. The operating detector needs a steady control and sometimes some technical maintenance. In addition, the results obtained earlier are being permanently refined, it means, it is necessary to correct plans and schedules of work at the NPP and in the lab. Next year, we plan to upgrade the experiment for which many preliminary test measurements on test benches are to be conducted, and then the upgraded detector is to be assembled on site. Well, there is a lot of work.
In the MONUMENT project, I will process the 2021−2022 data, prepare them together with our group for publication. That is, the upcoming year will be devoted to the analysis. The information we obtain in the MONUMENT project is of interest to experimentalists investigating the neutrinoless double beta decay, and also to theoreticians who are calculating nuclear matrix elements.”
Igor Zhitnikov was granted the scholarship named after Venedikt Petrovich Dzhelepov, the first director of the Laboratory of Nuclear Problems, whose 110th anniversary will be celebrated next year. Today, the Laboratory proudly bears the name of this prominent science administrator who set the foundation for the Laboratory, developed its structure and determined its main research directions.
He is also widely known as the author of papers on nuclear physics, particle physics, physics and technology of large accelerators and their application.
“Venedikt Petrovich Dzhelepov was always a benchmark and a role model for me. A laboratory, a street in Dubna were named after him, and so was the scholarship I will receive now,” says I. V. Zhitnikov. “I feel flattered. I would like to be like Venedikt Petrovich who stand at the origins of our Institute and our Laboratory, who took part in development of complicated experimental facilities, who established the lab traditions and became a part of the history of the entire Institute.
Finally, I would like to remember Vyacheslav Georgievich Egorov and Viktor Borisovich Brudanin, the people without whom the DANSS project would not have come to life. All the team and I miss them a lot. Especially, I would like to thank Evgeny Aleksandrovich Yakushev, the head of the DLNP Experimental Department of Nuclear Spectroscopy and Radiochemistry, who nominated me for the scholarship competition. It greatly motivated me. I am happy that I have succeeded.”
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