The CAST Time Projection Chamber

One of the three X-ray detectors of the CAST experiment searching for solar axions is a Time Projection Chamber (TPC) with a multi-wire proportional counter (MWPC) as a readout structure. Its design has been optimized to provide high sensitivity to the detection of the low intensity X-ray signal expected in the CAST experiment. A low hardware threshold of 0.8 keV is safely set during normal data taking periods, and the overall efficiency for the detection of photons coming from conversion of solar axions is 62 %. Shielding has been installed around the detector, lowering the background level to 4.10 x 10^-5 counts/cm^2/s/keV between 1 and 10 keV. During phase I of the CAST experiment the TPC has provided robust and stable operation, thus contributing with a competitive result to the overall CAST limit on axion-photon coupling and mass.Comment: 19 pages, 11 figures and images, submitted to New Journal of Physic

The TESLA Time Projection Chamber

A large Time Projection Chamber is proposed as part of the tracking system for a detector at the TESLA electron positron linear collider. Different ongoing R&D studies are reviewed, stressing progress made on a new type readout technique based on Micro-Pattern Gas Detectors.Comment: 5 pages, 8 figures; Proceeding for the topical Seminar on Innovative Particle and Radiation Detectors Siena, 21-24 October 2002; to appear in Nucl.Phys. B (Proceedings Supplement

Liquid Scintillator Time Projection Chamber Concept

Results are presented from a small-scale experiment to investigate the use of room temperature organic liquid scintillators as the active medium for a time projection chamber (TPC). The optical properties of liquid scintillators have long been known, but their ability to transport charge has remained, until now, largely untested. The idea of using room temperature liquids as an active medium for an ionisation chamber was first presented in \cite{EnglerTMS}. Since then the range of liquid scintillators available has been greatly developed. We present successful transport of ionization charges in a selection of both, pure organic liquid solvents and liquid scintillator cocktails over 20$\,$mm using a variety of electric drift field strengths. The target of this research is to offer a cost effective alternative to liquid noble gas detectors in neutrino physics.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Proceedings 12th Pisa Meeting on Advanced Detectors, La Biodola, Isola d'Elba, Ital

The Laser of the ALICE Time Projection Chamber

The large TPC ($95 \mathrm{m}^3$) of the ALICE detector at the CERN LHC was commissioned in summer 2006. The first tracks were observed both from the cosmic ray muons and from the laser rays injected into the TPC. In this article the basic principles of operating the $266 \mathrm{nm}$ lasers are presented, showing the installation and adjustment of the optical system and describing the control system. To generate the laser tracks, a wide laser beam is split into several hundred narrow beams by fixed micro-mirrors at stable and known positions throughout the TPC. In the drift volume, these narrow beams generate straight tracks at many angles. Here we describe the generation of the first tracks and compare them with simulations.Comment: QM06 poster proceedings, 6 pages, 4 figure

A Time Projection Chamber with GEM-Based Readout

For the International Large Detector concept at the planned International Linear Collider, the use of time projection chambers (TPC) with micro-pattern gas detector readout as the main tracking detector is investigated. In this paper, results from a prototype TPC, placed in a 1 T solenoidal field and read out with three independent GEM-based readout modules, are reported. The TPC was exposed to a 6 GeV electron beam at the DESY II synchrotron. The efficiency for reconstructing hits, the measurement of the drift velocity, the space point resolution and the control of field inhomogeneities are presented.Comment: 22 pages, 19 figure

The ALICE time projection chamber

The ALICE TPC is a conventional TPC based on experience with previous TPCs used in heavy ion beams. However, the unpreceeded high particle multiplicities at LHC Pb+Pb collision has led in detail to many innovations in its design and construction

Laser calibration system for the CERES Time Projection Chamber

A Nd:YAG laser was used to simulate charged particle tracks at known positions in the CERES Time Projection Chamber at the CERN SPS. The system was primarily developed to study the response of the readout electronics and to calibrate the electron drift velocity. Further applications were the determination of the gating grid transparency, the chamber position calibration, and long-term monitoring of drift properties of the gas in the detector.Comment: 28 pages, 26 figures; reference to the TPC preprint update

A Readout System for the STAR Time Projection Chamber

We describe the readout electronics for the STAR Time Projection Chamber. The system is made up of 136,608 channels of waveform digitizer, each sampling 512 time samples at 6-12 Mega-samples per second. The noise level is about 1000 electrons, and the dynamic range is 800:1, allowing for good energy loss ($dE/dx$) measurement for particles with energy losses up to 40 times minimum ionizing. The system is functioning well, with more than 99% of the channels working within specifications.Comment: 22 pages + 8 separate figures; 2 figures are .jpg photos to appear in Nuclear Instruments and Method

MicroBooNE: A New Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber Experiment

Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber detectors are well suited to study neutrino interactions, and are an intriguing option for future massive detectors capable of measuring the parameters that characterize neutrino oscillations. These detectors combine fine-grained tracking with calorimetry, allowing for excellent imaging and particle identification ability. In this talk the details of the MicroBooNE experiment, a 175 ton LArTPC which will be exposed to Fermilab's Booster Neutrino Beamline starting in 2011, will be presented. The ability of MicroBooNE to differentiate electrons from photons gives the experiment unique capabilities in low energy neutrino interaction measurements.Comment: Proceedings of the 6th International Workshop on Neutrino-Nucleus Interactions in the Few-GeV Region (NuInt09

Continuous Monitoring of STAR\u27s Main Time Projection Chamber

STAR refers to the Solenoidal Tracking instrument At RHIC (the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider). For momenta above 500 MeV/c charged kaons are not separated from pions within STAR\u27s Main TPC (Time Projection Chamber) by track density alone and they are poorly separated below 500 MeV/c, even when using information from other sources like the vertex tracker. Within the TPC large numbers of kaons and pions decay into muons (and undetected neutrinos). Earlier work has shown parent pions and kaons whose decays are detected within a TPC may be distinguished uniquely from each other in a two-dimensional plot of muon-emission angle versus momentum difference (between each parent meson and its decay muon). Since pions and kaons have zero spin, each muon decay-product emerges isotropically in its parent meson\u27s rest frame. Identification of particle type provides the parent meson\u27s rest mass and, thus, its total energy. This means the measurement of each decay event is kinematically complete. Thus, Lorentz Transformations may be used to transform each component of the decaying muon\u27s laboratory four-momentum into the rest frame of its parent meson, where the muon decay is isotropic. An aggregated plot of muon directions from many parent rest frames will be isotropic in each (selected) sub-volume of the TPC unless there is a problem within the TPC or in its tracking algorithms. Continuous monitoring of a TPC is possible using this subset of detected charged particles