50 years of the JINR Veksler and Baldin Laboratory of High Energies in Dubna

An International seminar dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the V.M.Veksler and A.M.Baldin Laboratory of High Energies at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (VBLHE, JINR) will be held in Dubna (Russia) on 2 - 4 October 2003. The seminar is organised by JINR with the support of the RF Ministry of Atomic Energy, the RF Ministry of Industry, Science and Technology, the Russian Fund of Fundamental Research and the International Scientific and Technical Centre. The foundation of the Laboratory of High Energies was initiated by the P.Lebedev Institute of Physics, AS of the USSR, where in 1944 V.I.Veksler, later an Academician and the first director of LHE, discovered the principle of autophasing, which lies in the basis of the performance of cyclic accelerators at high energies. Under the guidance of V.Veksler, in 1949-1950 physics specifications of the synchrophasotron were worked out and in 1953 an Electrophysics Laboratory (EPL, AS) was organised to conduct research in the high energy physics at the synchrophasotron, which was under construction at the time. On 26 March 1956, EPL became part of JINR and was called the Laboratory of High Energies. The synchrophasotron was launched into operation in April 1957 at the proton energy of 10 GeV. At that time it was the largest accelerator in the world. The research programme was worked out and realised under the guidance of V.Veksler, M.Markov and I.Chuvilo. Later A.Baldin introduced a new trend in research of the interaction processes where quark structure of nuclei is revealed - the relativistic nuclear physics (RNP). The start of the RNP research at LHE was done with the experiments on the production of cumulative particles in reactions where nuclei participated. The purposeful development of the synchrophasotron made it possible to accelerate deutrons in 1971. With the introduction of a new injector -- a linear accelerator at 20 MeV -- and unique, used for the first time at accelerators, electron-beam and laser sources of high charge ions and a polarised deutron source, physicists obtained beams of light nuclei up to sulphur, as well as beams of polarised nucleons and deutrons. The acceleration of nuclei at the synchrophasotron allowed the development of an unusual trigger. As a result of it, for the first time light hypernuclei were registered and identified with a streamer chamber, and the realisation of the hypernuclei research programme began. In 1993 the Nuclotron was put into operation -- it was the first superconducting accelerator of nuclei, whose work out and construction headed Academician A.Baldin. The polarised deutron beam of a record energy and the polarised proton beam together with the unique quasimonochromatic polarised neutrons, obtained from it due to stripping, and the polarised proton target opened way to the research in spin physics. Today the Laboratory of High Energies is an acceleration centre for a wide range of research in that energy interval where the transition from the effects of the nucleon structure of the nucleus to the demonstration of asymptotic behaviour of characteristics in nuclear interactions takes place. The Laboratory has wide international scientific cooperation with CERN, many physics centres in Russia, JINR member states, centres in the USA, Germany, Japan, India, Egypt and other countries. The agenda of the jubilee seminar includes review reports and intriguing scientific news, and a ceremonial meeting. Famous physicists, leaders of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Ministries and institutions connected with the organisation and development of scientific research in nuclear physics and technology are invited to attend the event. JINR Director Academician V.Kadyshevsky heads the Organising Committee of the seminar.