Investigation of the performance of an optimised MicroCAT, a GEM and their combination by simulations and current measurements

A MicroCAT (Micro Compteur A Trous) structure which is used for avalanche charge multiplication in gas filled radiation detectors has been optimised with respect to maximum electron transparency and minimum ion feedback. We report on the charge transfer behaviour and the achievable gas gain of this device. A three-dimensional electron and ion transfer simulation is compared to results derived from electric current measurements. Similarly, we present studies of the charge transfer behaviour of a GEM (Gas Electron Multiplier) by current measurements and simulations. Finally, we investigate the combination of the MicroCAT and the GEM by measurements with respect to the performance at different voltage settings, gas mixtures and gas pressures.Comment: 26 pages, 32 figure

Silicon Drift Detector Readout Electronics for a Compton Camera

A prototype detector for Compton camera imaging is under development. A monolithic array of 19 channel Silicon drift detector with on-chip electronics is going to be used as a scatter detector for the prototype system. Custom designed analog and digital readout electronics for this detector was first tested by using a single cell Silicon drift detector. This paper describes the readout architecture and presents the results of the measurement.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Nucl. Instr. Meth.

Theoretical study of incoherent phi photoproduction on a deuteron target

We study the photoproduction of phi mesons in deuteron, paying attention to the modification of the cross section from bound protons to the free ones with the aim of comparing with recent results at LEPS. For this purpose we take into account Fermi motion in single scattering and rescattering of the phi to account for phi absorption on a second nucleon as well as the rescattering of the proton. We find that the contribution of the double scattering is much smaller than the typical cross section of gamma p to phi p in free space, which implies a very small screening of the phi production in deuteron. The contribution from the proton rescattering, on the other hand, is found to be not negligible compared to the cross section of gamma p to phi p in free space, and leads to a moderate reduction of the phi photoproduction cross section on a deuteron at forward angles if LEPS set up is taken into account. The Fermi motion allows contribution of the single scattering in regions forbidden by phase space in the free case. In particular, we find that for momentum transferred squared close to the maximum value, the Fermi motion changes drastically the shape of d sigma / dt, to the point that the ratio of this cross section to the free one becomes very sensitive to the precise value of t chosen, or the size of the bin used in an experimental analysis. Hence, this particular region of t does not seem the most indicated to find effects of a possible phi absorption in the deuteron. This reaction is studied theoretically as a function of t and the effect of the experimental angular cuts at LEPS is also discussed, providing guidelines for future experimental analyses of the reaction.Comment: 17 pages, 16 figure

Coherent phi and omega meson photoproduction from deuteron and non-diffractive channels

For coherent photoproduction of phi and omega mesons from deuteron at forward angles, the isovector pi-exchange amplitude is strongly suppressed. We show a possibility to study the non-diffractive channels associated with the unnatural parity exchange in phi-photoproduction and with the baryon resonance excitations in omega-photoproduction by measuring the spin observables.Comment: 5 pages, 7 figure

Photoproduction of phi mesons from nuclei

We investigate the consequences of possible medium modifications of the phi meson at finite nuclear matter density on the K+K- mass distribution in photonuclear reactions. The inclusive cross sections for K+K- pair production are calculated within a semi--classical BUU transport model, which combines the initial state interaction of the incoming photon with the final state interactions of the produced particles. The effects of final state interactions on the invariant mass distribution of the observed K+K- pairs are discussed in detail. In addition we calculate the Coulomb correction and possible effects of hadronic kaon potentials on the K+K- mass spectrum. Due to the large cross sections for reactions of the final state particles with the surrounding nuclear medium and the influence of the Coulomb potential we find no measurable sensitivity of the observables to the phi properties at finite baryon density.Comment: revtex4, 24 page

Measurement of the Photon Structure Function F2gamma with the L3 Detector at LEP

The e+e- -> e+e- hadrons reaction, where one of the two electrons is detected in a low polar-angle calorimeter, is analysed in order to measure the hadronic photon structure function F2gamma . The full high-energy and high-luminosity data set, collected with the L3 detector at centre-of-mass energies 189-209GeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 608/pb is used. The Q^2 range 11-34GeV^2 and the x range 0.006-0.556 are considered. The data are compared with recent parton density functions