The department is oriented towards research work in the field of high energy physics, and is actively participating in ambitious experimental project at the leading accelerator centers. 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 Protvino near Serpukhov , in Moscow region of Russian Federation. At the beginning of the seventies a fully automatized measuring system for bubble chamber pictures processing was built up in uor laboratory. At the same time the full chain of the Cern off-line bubble chamber software was implemented in Kosice.These possibilities were used effectively for contributing 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.
We have also contributed significantly to the study of contributed significantly to the study of antideuteron-deuteron interactions using the Ludmila bubble chamber with the track sensitive target irradiated in the unigue antideuteron beams at the Serpukhov acceleator.
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 hyperchange exchange, study of the Adependence of the inclusive eta-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 lage 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 using HELIOS and OMEGA spectrometers. A significant part of our present interests is connected with preparation for the LHC programme. This activity is oriented to the R&D projects devoted to the development of new detectors (gas microstrip chambers, a novel concept for the liquid argon calorimeter).