Studies in many areas of particle and astroparticle physics require a good knowledge of hadron spectra produced at small angles to the primary particle direction, e.g. in the TeV energy range at the ...LHC. The present work is dedicated to development of a particle identification technique based on the transition radiation produced by highly relativistic particles. Dedicated experimental studies were carried out and simulation models were developed to reproduce experimental data obtained with different prototypes. On the basis of these studies, the possibility of making detectors able to provide hadron composition measurement with high accuracy and identify particles with high efficiency in the forward experiments at the LHC was demonstrated. Two concepts of large scale TRDs are proposed: the straw TRD and the GaAs/straw TRD. They allow the reconstruction of hadron spectra with accuracy about or below 1% and to identify particles with high efficiency in individual events. As an example, suppression of the combinatorial background was demonstrated for the D0→K−π+ and D̄0→K+π− decays.
X-ray transition radiation detectors (TRDs) are used for particle identification in both high energy physics and astroparticle physics. In most of the detectors, emission of the X-ray transition ...radiation (TR) starts at Lorentz factors above γ∼500 and reaches saturation at γ∼2÷3⋅103. However, many experiments require particle identification up to γ∼105, which is very difficult to achieve with conventional detectors. Semiconductor pixel detectors offer a unique opportunity for precise simultaneous measurements of spectral and angular parameters of TR photons. Test beam studies of the energy and the angular distributions of TR photons emitted by electrons and muons of different momenta crossing several types of radiators were performed at the CERN SPS with a 480 μm thick silicon detector bonded to a Timepix3 chip. High resolution images of the energy−angle phase space of the TR produced by different radiators were obtained and compared with MC simulations. The characteristic interference patterns are in agreement with the theoretical models with an unprecedented level of details. The studies presented in this paper also show that simultaneous measurements of both the energy and the emission angles of the TR X-rays could be used to enhance the particle identification performances of TRDs.
X-ray Transition radiation detectors (TRDs) are used for particle identification in both high energy physics and astroparticle physics. Particle identification is often achieved based on a threshold ...effect of the X-ray transition radiation (TR). In most of the detectors, TR emission starts at γ factors above ∼500 and reaches saturation at γ∼2−3⋅103. However, many experiments require particle identification up to γ∼105, which is difficult to achieve with current detectors, based only on the measurement of the photon energy together with the particle ionization losses. Additional information on the Lorentz factor can be extracted from the angular distribution of TR photons. TRDs based on pixel detectors give a unique opportunity for precise measurements of spectral and angular distributions of TR at the same time. A 500 μm thick silicon sensor bump bonded to a Timepix3 chip was used in a test beam measurement at the CERN SPS. A beam telescope was employed to separate clusters produced by the primary beam particles from the potential TR clusters. Spectral and angular distributions of TR were studied with high precision for the first time using beams of pions, electrons and muons at different momenta. In this paper, the measurement and analysis techniques are described, and first results are presented.
Studying of hadron production in forward direction at the LHC energy has a great interest both for understanding of the fundamental QCD processes and also in applied areas such as the description of ...ultra-high energy cosmic particle interactions. The energies of secondary hadrons in such studies almost reach the maximum energy available at the LHC of ~6 TeV, which corresponds to a Lorentz γ-factor up to 104 and above. The only effective technique able to identify particles in this range is based on the transition radiation detectors (TRD). Prototypes of such kind of detector were built and tested at the CERN SPS accelerator. Some experimental results obtained in these tests are briefly presented here and compared with Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. MC model demonstrates a good agreement with the experiment. On this basis a concept of a full-scale TRD optimized for the hadron identification in the TeV energy region is proposed. Different particle identification techniques were considered and examined. The expected detector performance to reconstruct secondary hadrons produced in forward direction at the LHC is presented.
Many modern and future accelerator and cosmic ray experiments require identification of particles with Lorentz γ-factor up to 104 and above. The only technique which reaches this range of Lorentz ...factors is based on the transition radiation detectors (TRD). This paper describes the development of a TRD based on straw proportional tubes. A prototype of such kind of detector was built and tested at the CERN SPS accelerator. Monte Carlo simulation model of the detector which matches well the experimental data was developed. This program was used for the simulation of a full-scale TRD for hadron identification at TeV energy scale.
New developments of pixel detectors based on GaAs sensors offer effective registration of the transition radiation (TR) X-rays and perform simultaneous measurements of their energies and emission ...angles. This unique feature opens new possibilities for particle identification on the basis of maximum available information about generated TR photons. Results of studies of TR energy-angular distributions using a 500 |j.m thick GaAs sensor attached to a Timepix3 chip are presented. Measurements, analysis techniques and a comparison with Monte Carlo (MC) simulations are described and discussed.
The present version of the Transition Radiation (TR) simulation module implemented in the Geant4 toolkit describes very well experimental data for the TR energy distribution; however, it does not ...allow reproducing the details of angular distribution at small angles. In order to solve this problem, corrections to the existing x-ray TR module in Geant4 are proposed. With these corrections, the results of the simulations are in a good agreement with the angular TR distributions predicted by theory and obtained in the test beam measurements using a 480 um Si pixel detector and Mylar radiator.
Operating conditions and challenging demands of present and future accelerator experiments result in new requirements on detector systems. There are many ongoing activities aimed to develop new ...technologies and to improve the properties of detectors based on existing technologies. Our work is dedicated to development of Transition Radiation Detectors (TRD) suitable for different applications. In this paper results obtained in beam tests at SPS accelerator at CERN with the TRD prototype based on straw technology are presented. TRD performance was studied as a function of thickness of the transition radiation radiator and working gas mixture pressure.
We plan to develop an advanced Transition Radiation Detector (TRD) for hadron identification in the TeV momentum range, based on the simultaneous measurement of the energies and of the emission ...angles of the Transition Radiation (TR) X-rays with respect to the radiating particles. To study the feasibility of this project, we have carried out a beam test campaign at the CERN SPS facility with 20 GeV/c electrons and muons up to 300 GeV/c. To detect the TR X-rays and the radiating particles, we used a 300 μm thick double-sided silicon strip detector, with a strip readout pitch of 50 μm. A 2 m long helium pipe was placed between the radiators and the detector, in order to ensure adequate separation between the TR X-rays and the radiating particle on the detector plane and to limit the X-ray absorption before the detector. We measured the double-differential (in energy and angle) spectra of the TR emitted by several radiators. The results are in good agreement with the predictions obtained from the TR theory.
Towards the end of LHC Run1, gas leaks were observed in some parts of the Transition Radiation Tracker (TRT) of ATLAS. Due to these leaks, primary Xenon based gas mixture was replaced with Argon ...based mixture in various parts. Test-beam studies with a dedicated Transition Radiation Detector (TRD) prototype were carried out in 2015 in order to understand transition radiation performance with mixtures based on Argon and Krypton. We present and discuss the results of these test-beam studies with different active gas compositions.
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