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The aim of this research is to develop a planar DIRC detector showing advantages and performance similar to a classical, barrel shaped DIRC, but at smaller polar angles which cannot be accessed using a cylindrical geometry. The device will complement the PANDA Barrel DIRC by covering polar angles from 5° to 22°. The envisaged π /K-separation is ≥ 3 σ up to 4 GeV/c. A major challenge is the adaption of the device to the PANDA environment including a magnetic field of ~1–2 T, high rates and radiation, limited space for optics and sensors as well as the lack of a common first-level trigger. This paper discusses a detector design which forms a compromise between these constraints and available hardware, a specific analytic reconstruction method, a performance estimation based on Geant4 simulations and finally the successful particle identification using a recent R&D prototype. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The next generation of high-luminosity experiments requires excellent particle identification detectors which calls for Imaging Cherenkov counters with fast electronics to cope with the expected hit rates. A Barrel DIRC will be used in the central region of the Target Spectrometer of the planned PANDA experiment at FAIR. A single photo-electron timing resolution of better than 100 ps is required by the Barrel DIRC to disentangle the complicated patterns created on the image plane. R&D studies have been performed to provide a design based on the TRB3 readout using FPGA-TDCs with a precision better than 20 ps RMS and custom frontend electronics with high-bandwidth pre-amplifiers and fast discriminators. The discriminators also provide time-over-threshold information thus enabling walk corrections to improve the timing resolution. Two types of frontend electronics cards optimised for reading out 64-channel PHOTONIS Planacon MCP-PMTs were tested: one based on the NINO ASIC and the other, called PADIWA, on FPGA discriminators. Promising results were obtained in a full characterisation using a fast laser setup and in a test experiment at MAMI, Mainz, with a small scale DIRC prototype. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hadronic particle identification (PID) in the barrel region of the PANDA experiment at the new Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research in Europe (FAIR) at GSI, Darmstadt will be provided by a DIRC (Detection of Internally Reflected Cherenkov light) counter. To optimize the performance and reduce the detector cost, detailed simulations of different design elements, such as the width of the radiators, the shape of the expansion volume, and the type of focusing system, were performed using Geant. Custom reconstruction algorithms were developed to match the detector geometry. We will discuss the single photon resolution and photon yield as well as the PID performance for the Barrel DIRC baseline design and several detector design options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The PANDA experiment at the new Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research in Europe (FAIR) at GSI, Darmstadt, will study fundamental questions of hadron physics and QCD using high-intensity cooled antiproton beams with momenta between 1.5 and 15 GeV/ c . Efficient Particle Identification for a wide momentum range and the full solid angle is required for reconstructing the various physics channels of the PANDA program. Hadronic Particle Identification in the barrel region of the detector will be provided by a DIRC counter. The design is based on the successful BABAR DIRC with important improvements, such as focusing optics and fast photon timing. Several of these improvements, including different radiator geometries and optics, were tested in particle beams at GSI and at CERN. The evolution of the conceptual design of the PANDA Barrel DIRC and the performance of complex prototypes in test beam campaigns will be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The charged particle identification at the PANDA experiment will be mainly performed with DIRC detectors. Because of their advantageous properties the preferred photon sensors are MCP-PMTs. However, until recently these devices showed serious aging problems which resulted in a diminishing quantum efficiency (QE) of the photo cathode. By applying innovative countermeasures against the aging causes, the manufacturers recently succeeded in drastically improving the lifetime of MCP-PMTs. Especially the application of an ALD coating technique to seal the material of the micro-channels proves very powerful and results in a lifetime of ≈ 6 C / cm 2 integrated anode charge without a substantial QE degradation for the latest PHOTONIS XP85112. This paper will present a comparative measurement of the lifetime of several older and recent MCP-PMTs demonstrating this progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design of the Barrel DIRC detector for the future PANDA experiment at FAIR contains several important improvements compared to the successful BABAR DIRC, such as focusing and fast timing. To test those improvements as well as other design options a prototype was build and successfully tested in 2012 with particle beams at CERN. The prototype comprises a radiator bar, focusing lens, mirror, and a prism shaped expansion volume made of synthetic fused silica. An array of micro-channel plate photomultiplier tubes measures the location and arrival time of the Cherenkov photons with sub-nanosecond resolution. The development of a fast reconstruction algorithm allowed to tune construction details of the detector setup with test beam data and Monte-Carlo simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The PANDA collaboration at FAIR, Germany, will employ antiproton annihilations to investigate yet undiscovered charm-meson states and glueballs. The aim is to study QCD phenomena in the non-perturbative regime and to unravel the origin of hadronic masses. A multi-purpose detector for tracking, calorimetry and particle identification is presently being developed to run at high luminosities providing up to interactions/s. One of the crucial components of the PANDA spectrometer is the Electromagnetic Calorimeter, composed of cooled PbWO4 crystals. This paper describes construction and performance of a fully functioning prototype of this calorimeter. The performance was determined from measurements exploiting cosmic muons and high-energy tagged photons from the MAMI-C electron accelerator. The response measurements were carried out using sampling ADCs and, for comparison, charge-integrating ADCs. The achieved results validate the usage of sampling ADCs with a moderate sampling frequency, provide the energy resolution as foreseen in the Technical Design Report of the full calorimeter, and secure event correlation by achieving a good timing resolution through digital analysis of the sampled signals. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]