Groupe des Ecoles des Mines - Department of Subatomic Physics and Associated Technologies - SUBATECH

The department conducts research in the following areas :

SUBATOMIC PHYSICS

Experimental physics
In the field of subatomic physics, three teams are involved in searching and studying matter at the extreme temperatures and densities that may have existed in the early universe. They are preparing experiments at the heavy ion collider RHIC at Brookhaven and at the LHC at CERN Geneva. The objective is to study a state where quarks and gluons are free to roam, deconfined from their usual enclosure in hadrons, thus forming the so-called Quark Gluon Plasma. Several signals of this state need to be detected before its existence can be proclaimed. This is why Subatech is involved in the R&D of detectors, their design and construction as well as their operation. The Micromegas detector, invented by G. Charpak and Y. Giomataris, has been developed for high spatial resolution in two dimensions (x-y), as well as the thin cathode pad chambers for a large Spectrometer at ALICE at CERN.
In parallel, high resolution detectors based on silicon technology are being developed and a one square meter detector with 2,600,000 electronic channels is being built for RHIC. Another field of research currently being launched concerns the new domain of "astroparticles". It aims at searching for very energetic cosmic rays via radioelectric detection.

Theory
The presence of a large in-house theory group is one of the strengths of Subatech since it permits the comparison of models made with sophisticated mathematics and computing equipment with the collected experimental data, as well as the necessary improvement of models that are "too far from reality".

ASSOCIATED TECHNOLOGIES
Associated Technologies cover the whole spectrum of nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry in the frame of nuclear energy production.

GEDEON
The GEDEON group ("Gestion des Dechets par des Options Nouvelles") studies the feasibility of transmutation of long-lived radioactive waste into short-lived radioactive waste via an accelerator-driven subcritical reactor.

INCADE
This group (Instrumentation, Capteurs et Detecteurs) is specialized in the detection, metrology, and imaging systems for the following applications :
 , and charges particles
 opto-electronic and fiber optic sensor
 non-destructive testing in medical, pharmaceutical and biological sciences.

Radiochemistry
The radiochemistry group studies the chemistry of nuclear waste, develops research on the safety of storage in deep geological layers and develops models for the simulation of these complex reactions.
In collaboration with INSERM (Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale), the radiochemistry group works on the production and application of alpha-emitting heavy nuclei for the alpha-immunotherapy cancer program.A service group called SMART (Service de Metrologie et d'Analyse de Radioactivité et éléments Trace) is dedicated to fulfilling, on demand, any environmental radioactivity measurement to the highest quality standards.

Director : Jacques MARTINO