0000000000337242

AUTHOR

M. Colantoni

Read-out electronics for fast photon detection with COMPASS RICH-1

A new read-out electronics system has been developed for the fast photon detection of the central region of the COMPASS RICH-1. The project is based on multi-anode photomultipliers read out by the high-sensitivity MAD4 preamplifier-discriminator and the dead-time free F1 TDC chip characterised by high time resolution. The system has been designed taking into account the high photon flux in the central region of the detector and the high rate requirement of the COMPASS experiment. The system is described in detail together with the measured performances. The new electronics system has been installed and used for the 2006 data taking; it entirely fulfils the expected performances.

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Particle identification with COMPASS RICH-1

International audience; RICH-1 is a large size RICH detector in operation at the COMPASS experiment since 2001 and recently upgraded implementing a new photon detection system with increased performance.A dedicated software package has been developed to perform RICH-1 data reduction, pattern recognition and particle identification as well as a number of accessory tasks for detector studies.The software package, the algorithms implemented and the detector characterisation and performance are reported in detail.

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The experience of building and operating COMPASS RICH-1

COMPASS RICH-1 is a large size gaseous Imaging Cherenkov Detector providing hadron identification in the range from 3 to 55 GeV/c, in the wide acceptance spectrometer of the COMPASS Experiment at CERN SPS. It uses a 3 m long C(4)F(10) radiator, a 21 m(2) large VUV mirror surface and two kinds of photon detectors: MAPMTs and MWPCs with CsI photocathodes, covering a total of 5.5 m(2). It is in operation since 2002 and its performance has increased in time thanks to progressive optimization and mostly to a major upgrade which was implemented in 2006. The main characteristics of COMPASS RICH-1 components are described and some specific aspects related to the radiator gas system, the mirror alig…

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The COMPASS experiment at CERN

The COMPASS experiment makes use of the CERN SPS high-intensitymuon and hadron beams for the investigation of the nucleon spin structure and the spectroscopy of hadrons. One or more outgoing particles are detected in coincidence with the incoming muon or hadron. A large polarized target inside a superconducting solenoid is used for the measurements with the muon beam. Outgoing particles are detected by a two-stage, large angle and large momentum range spectrometer. The setup is built using several types of tracking detectors, according to the expected incident rate, required space resolution and the solid angle to be covered. Particle identification is achieved using a RICH counter and both…

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Gluon Polarisation in the Nucleon and Longitudinal Double Spin Asymmetries from Open Charm Muoproduction

The gluon polarisation in the nucleon has been determined by detecting charm production via D0 meson decay to charged K and pi in polarised muon scattering off a longitudinally polarised deuteron target. The data were taken by the COMPASS Collaboration at CERN between 2002 and 2006 and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 2.8 fb^-1. The dominant underlying process of charm production is the photon-gluon fusion to a cc-bar pair. A leading order QCD approach gives an average gluon polarisation of (Delta g/g)_x= -0.49 +- 0.27(stat) +- 0.11(syst) at a scale mu^2 ~ 13 (GeV/c)^2 and at an average gluon momentum fraction (x) ~ 0.11. The longitudinal cross-section asymmetry for D0 production …

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Measurement of the Charged-Pion Polarizability

The COMPASS collaboration at CERN has investigated pion Compton scattering, $\pi^-\gamma\rightarrow \pi^-\gamma$, at centre-of-mass energy below 3.5 pion masses. The process is embedded in the reaction $\pi^-\mathrm{Ni}\rightarrow\pi^-\gamma\;\mathrm{Ni}$, which is initiated by 190\,GeV pions impinging on a nickel target. The exchange of quasi-real photons is selected by isolating the sharp Coulomb peak observed at smallest momentum transfers, $Q^2<0.0015$\,(GeV/$c$)$^2$. From a sample of 63\,000 events the pion electric polarisability is determined to be $\alpha_\pi\ =\ (\,2.0\ \pm\ 0.6_{\mbox{\scriptsize stat}}\ \pm\ 0.7_{\mbox{\scriptsize syst}}\,) \times 10^{-4}\,\mbox{fm}^3$ under the …

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