The PANDA DIRC detectors at FAIR

• Published in: Journal of instrumentation Vol. 12; no. 7; p. C07006
• Main Authors: Schwarz, C., Ali, A., Belias, A., Dzhygadlo, R., Gerhardt, A., Götzen, K., Kalicy, G., Krebs, M., Lehmann, D., Nerling, F., Patsyuk, M., Peters, K., Schepers, G., Schmitt, L., Schwiening, J., Traxler, M., Zühlsdorf, M., Böhm, M., Britting, A., Eyrich, W., Lehmann, A., Pfaffinger, M., Uhlig, F., Düren, M., Etzelmüller, E., Föhl, K., Hayrapetyan, A., Kreutzfeld, K., Kröck, B., Merle, O., Rieke, J., Schmidt, M., Wasem, T., Achenbach, P., Cardinali, M., Hoek, M., Lauth, W., Schlimme, S., Sfienti, C., Thiel, M., Allison, L., Hyde, C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bristol IOP Publishing 04.07.2017
• Subjects: Antiparticles; Antiprotons; Microchannel plates; Microchannels; Photons
• ISSN: 1748-0221; 1748-0221
• DOI: 10.1088/1748-0221/12/07/C07006

The PANDA detector at the international accelerator Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research in Europe (FAIR) addresses fundamental questions of hadron physics. An excellent hadronic particle identification (PID) will be accomplished by two DIRC (Detection of Internally Reflected Cherenkov light) counters in the target spectrometer. The design for the barrel region covering polar angles between 22ˆ to 140ˆ is based on the successful BABAR DIRC with several key improvements, such as fast photon timing and a compact imaging region. The novel Endcap Disc DIRC will cover the smaller forward angles between 5ˆ (10ˆ) to 22ˆ in the vertical (horizontal) direction. Both DIRC counters will use lifetime-enhanced microchannel plate PMTs for photon detection in combination with fast readout electronics. Geant4 simulations and tests with several prototypes at various beam facilities have been used to evaluate the designs and validate the expected PID performance of both PANDA DIRC counters.