The CERN Super Proton Synchrotron as a tool to study high energy density physics

An experimental facility named HiRadMat, will be constructed at CERN to study the impact of the 450 GeV c⁻¹ proton beam generated by the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) on solid targets. This is designed to study damage caused to the equipment including absorbers, collimators and others in case of an accidental release of the beam energy. This paper presents two-dimensional numerical simulations of target behavior irradiated by the SPS beam. These numerical simulations have shown that the target will be completely destroyed in such an accident, thereby generating high energy density (HED) matter. This study therefore suggests that this facility may also be used for carrying out dedicated experiments to study HED states in matter.