At the start of 2018, the Rector of the University of Milano and the President of INFN have promoted the writing of a Conceptual Design Study of an analytic, multi-disciplinary research infrastructure.

The infrastructure MariX has been conceived to be a key element in terms of expertise and attractiveness for the MIND innovation district, that is under project in Milano in the former Expo area, in synergy with the new UNIMI Campus.

MariX is based on a photon beam source from electron accelerators: highly coherent X-ray beams from Free Electron Laser (FEL), in the 1-5 keV energy range, with ultrashort impulses (10-50 fs) and repetition rate up to 1 MHz, and monochromatic Compton X-rays up to 150 keV, with high fluxes up to 10¹³ photons/s. More details can be found in the other files, particularly in the general presentation and in the introduction to MariX. These sources are meant to feed experiments (beamlines) related to imaging, and spectroscopy (photon in-photon out, and photon in-electron out) for research in biomedicine, material science, and dynamical properties of matter (catalysis, magnetism, superconductivity, non-linear phenomena, matter in extreme conditions).

The project is aimed at establishing an advanced research infrastructure with strong impact on the activity of the scientific Departments of the University of Milano, and of other scientific institutions.

We started with a series of inter-departmental meetings. The first of these meetings was held on November 30, 2017 at the Department of Physics. Some presentations can be downloaded on the page "MariX: before CDR (Conceptual Design Report)". The purpose of the meetings was to identify a small number of pilot projects in different disciplinary areas, to constitute the "scientific case" to be completed in parallel with the "Conceptual Design Report" of the source.

The Conceptual Design Report was completed in March 2019, and is available for download below.
It is advisable to also read the introductory CDR preface: "Foreword".

MariX Conceptual Design Report Foreword (English version)

MariX Conceptual Design Report