V. F. Chepurnov

Time-Projection Chamber for the MPD NICA project

The Time-Projection Chamber (TPC) is the main device for tracking and identification of charged particles in the MPD experiment at the NICA collider. The article presents the design consideration of this detector for registration of central Au-Au collisions at energies up to 11 Gev/c and NICA event rate of 5 kHz. The status of the TPC construction and features of its main parts (field cage, read-out chambers, front end electronics, gas and cooling systems, laser-calibration) are described.

Readout system of TPC/MPD NICA project

The time-projection chamber (TPC) is the main tracking detector in the MPD/NICA. The information on charge-particle tracks in the TPC is registered by the MWPG with cathode pad readout. The frontend electronics (FEE) are developed with use of modern technologies such as application specific integrated circuits (ASIC), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA), and data transfer to a concentrator via a fast optical interface. The main parameters of the FEE are as follows: total number of channels, ~95 000; data stream from the whole TPC, 5 GB/s; low power consumption, less than 100 mW/ch; signal to noise ratio (S/N), 30; equivalent noise charge (ENC), <1000e– (Cin = 10–20 pF); and zero suppression (pad signal rejection ~90%). The article presents the status of the readout chamber construction and the data acquisition system. The results of testing FEE prototypes are presented.

TPC status for MPD experiment of NICA project

In a frame of the JINR scientific program on study of hot and dense baryonic matter a new accelerator complex Ion Collider fAcility (NICA) based on the Nuclotron-M is under realization. It will operate at luminosity up to 1027 cm−2s−1 for Au79+ ions. Two interaction points are foreseen at NICA for two detectors which will operate simultaneously. One of these detectors, the Multi-Purpose Detector (MPD), is optimized for investigations of heavy-ion collisions. The Time-Projection Chamber (TPC) is the main tracking detector of the MPD central barrel. It is a well-known detector for 3-dimensional tracking and particle identification for high multiplicity events. The conceptual layout of MPD and detailed description of the design and main working parameters of TPC, the readout system based on MWPC and readout electronics as well as the TPC subsystems and tooling for assembling and integration TPC into MPD are presented.

2-dimensional GEM detector with FEE based on the nXYTER ASIC

The GEM detector with 2-dimensional readout printed circuit board and an active area 10 × 10 cm2 for detection of diffraction patterns has been developed and constructed. A multichannel front end electronics based on two 128 channel nXYTER chips has been used. The investigations with this detector were made with high rate X-ray sources (6–15 keV). The measurement results of gas gain, spatial resolution and energy resolution are presented. The application of the GEM detector as a potential detector for material science and other diffraction experiments is presented.

The HADES tracking system

Abstract The HADES dielectron spectrometer has recently launched its physics program at the heavy ion synchrotron SIS at GSI Darmstadt. The spectroscopy of vector mesons in heavy ion collisions via their dielectron decay channel makes great demands on the HADES tracking system regarding acceptance and spatial resolution. The tracking system is formed out of 24 low-mass, trapezoidal multi-layer drift chambers providing about 30 m 2 of active area. Low multiple scattering in the in total four planes of drift chambers before and after the magnetic field is ensured by using helium-based gas mixtures and aluminum cathode and field wires. First in-beam performance results are contrasted with expectations from simulations. Emphasis is placed on the energy loss information, exploring its relevance regarding track recognition.