F. Giustolisi

Particle identification method in the CsI(Tl) scintillator used for the CHIMERA 4π detector

Abstract The charged particle identification obtained by the analysis of signals coming from the CsI(Tl) detectors of the CHIMERA 4 π heavy-ion detector is presented. A simple double-gate integration method, with the use of the cyclotron radiofrequency as reference time, results in low thresholds for isotopic particle identification. The dependence of the identification quality on the gate generation timing is discussed. Isotopic identification of light ions up to Beryllium is clearly seen. For the first time also the identification of Z =5 particles is observed. The identification of neutrons interacting with CsI(Tl) by ( n , α ) and ( n , γ ) reactions is also discussed.

Mass and charge identification of fragments detected with the Chimera Silicon-CsI(Tl) telescopes

Abstract Mass and charge identification of charged products detected with Silicon–CsI(Tl) telescopes of the Chimera apparatus are presented. An identification function, based on the Bethe–Bloch formula, is used to fit empirical correlations between Δ E and E ADC readings, in order to determine, event by event, the atomic and mass numbers of the detected charged reaction products prior to energy calibration.

Particle identification via pulse shape analysis for large-area silicon detectors of the CHIMERA array

Mass and atomic-number identification (ID) of reaction products is a fundamental requirement of any nuclear reaction study. An effective particle-ID method is demonstrated, based on pulse shape analysis/discrimination (PSD) applied to large-area, single-element silicon detectors. This technique uses commercial electronic modules and achieves atomic number resolution rivaling that typically obtained with multi-element (/spl Delta/E-E) detector telescopes. The method is applied to the CHIMERA detector system without compromising its time-of-flight (TOF) resolution. In-beam tests of the PSD method have been performed with large-area, 300-/spl mu/m thick CHIMERA silicon detectors, measuring particles from the /sup 19/F+/sup 12/C reaction at Tandem energies. Performance of a simple PSD set up is discussed, for front and rear particle injection.

CHIMERA data acquisition via digital sampling technique

A 100 Msamples/s 14-bit sampling analog-to-digital converter has been used to perform digital pulse-shape acquisition of signals collected from CHIMERA telescopes. Two different kinds of tests have been carried out to check the performances. The signals from a typical CHIMERA detection cell have been collected using both a standard CHIMERA electronic chain up to the amplifier, and a very simple analog front end, basically reduced to the preamplifier. The obtained on-beam and on-line results are presented.

Characterization of Nuclear Sources from Neutron-neutron, Proton-proton and Neutron-proton Correlation Functions

Two-neutron, two-proton and neutron–proton correlation functions have been measured simultaneously for the E/A=45 MeV 58 Ni + 27 Al reaction. Calculations from a statistical model have been compared to singles energy spectra as well as to total and gated correlation functions. This imposes very strong constraints on the model parameters. The use of directionally gated correlation functions helps to disentangle space and time information. Values of Gaussian radii, emission lifetimes, initial temperatures, source velocities and flow velocities are extracted. Correlation functions gated on total momentum of the nucleon pairs suggest that more energetic particles are emitted on a fast time scale ( < 100 fm / c ) and that the fraction of pre-equilibrium to equilibrium emission is larger for protons than for neutrons.

Isotope correlations as a probe for freeze-out characterization: central124Sn+64Ni,112Sn+58Ni collisions

Abstract 124 Sn+ 64 Ni and 112 Sn+ 58 Ni reactions at 35 AMeV incident energy were studied with the forward part of CHIMERA multi-detector. The most central collisions were selected by means of a multidimensional analysis. The characteristics of the source formed in the central collisions, as size, temperature and volume, were inspected. The measured isotopes of light fragments (3 ⩽ Z ⩽ 8) were used to examine isotope yield ratios that provide information on the free neutron to proton densities.

A spatial density analysis technique for the automatic classification of 4/spl pi/ detector data

In nuclear physics at intermediate energies, the use of multidetector arrays consisting of thousands of detectors is customary. This paper presents a novel approach to the automatic classification of data collected by the 4/spl pi/ detector CHIMERA, constituted by 1192 telescopes of a thin silicon transparent detector coupled to a thick CsI(Tl) scintillator. The method is based on spatial density data processing and produces frequency distributions of the most significant physical parameters. These one-dimensional spectra can be more easily analyzed than the standard two-dimensional scatter plots. With respect to manual or semiautomatic procedures, presently used for data analysis, our method offers the advantages of drastic time reduction and unbiased criteria for cluster identification. The proposed method can be successfully used in both off-line data analysis and multidetector stability control.

The enhanced data acquisition system for the 4/spl pi/ detector CHIMERA

CHIMERA is a second generation 4/spl pi/ detector for high resolution light particles and fragments measurements in the field of intermediate energy nuclear physics. An enhanced data acquisition, control and trigger system has been developed to manage the almost 5000 electronic channels of the detector. Data acquisition is based on fast data link (FDL) connection between 9U VME crates. FDL is a highly programmable VME device. It performs data readout and transfer to a destination board VME CPU, FIC8243, running the real time OS9 operating system. Data read and transfer is performed by a fast protocol (sparse data scan) whose performances have been improved introducing the chained block transfer mode (CELT) technique. Data collected by the CPU are broadcasted to the analysis stations for on-line data analysis and storage. All commands from and to VME CPU are sent by socket based network protocols. Complete remote control of the electronic front-end is obtained by a system of client-server applications. A first level event selection and control during readout is assured by a trigger system based on a new VME 9U board (MUSE), fully integrated with the FDL readout system.

The data acquisition and control system for the 4/spl pi/ detector CHIMERA

CHIMERA (Charged Heavy Ions Mass and Energy Resolving Array), a new 4/spl pi/ detector for charged particles is under development at various sites of the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare. This paper describes the new data acquisition system built to handle the signals coming out from the detector with a rate up to 1 kHz on almost 5000 electronic channels. The required average throughput for the system is in the order of the 1 MB/s. The used converters allow double-range conversion on 15 bits, in less than 50 /spl mu/s for all the 64 channels. The FDL link connects the different VME 9U crates performing a programmable hardware readout with a rate up to 100 MB/s. It uses a fast hardware protocol (Sparse Data Scan) to read the data buffers and send them to a FIC 8243 CPU board. A FIC 8243 dual-processor board forwards data (through Ethernet) to the analysis station (266 MHz Digital AlphaStation or Sun Sparcstation). A DLT (Digital Linear Tape) unit connected to analysis station is used to store data. The new data acquisition system has been tested under beam conditions at the Laboratorio Nazionale del Sud (Catania, Italy) and at GANIL (Caen, France).

Detector array control and triggering

A commercial DSP-based board installed in a host-PC was employed for the fast, on-line and real-time computation of special algorithms, in order to perform event selection and operate as a 2nd level trigger. Moreover an ad hoc built interface, realized using PLDs with a view to connecting the DSP-board to the ADCs and to the data acquisition system, has been tested in order to evaluate the performances of these programmable devices used as a look-up-table and as a decisional part of a 1st level trigger.