New RPC-TOF-FD installed in HADES
"The LIP HADES group and Detectors Laboratory have just completed the installation of the new RPC-based time of flight detector of the HADES spectrometer at GSI"
The HADES group, in collaboration with LIP's Detectors Laboratory, completed last week the installation of the new time of flight (TOF) detector for the HADES spectrometer at GSI. This detector, based on RPC technology (Resistive Plate Chambers, one of LIP's specialties in the development and construction of particle detectors) covers a previously uninstrumented region of the spectrometer, extending the time-of-flight measurement capability to the forward region of the detector (the region closest to the beam direction). The new RPC-TOF-FD (where FD stands for forward detector) will allow to detect protons and pions in light hyperon decays (Λ, Σ), Xi (Ξ) and resonances with strangeness.
The LIP group designed, built and operates an essencial component of the HADES spectrometer, the so-called RPC-TOF-W: a wall (W) of 3 m x 3 m of resistive plate chambers (RPCs) that accurately measures the crossing time of particles. This is important information for the determination of the type and momentum of particles. In 2020 and 2021 the LIP group worked to prepare HADES for the future facility FAIR: upgrading the RPC-TOF-W to handle the expected high particle rate (200 kHz) and completing the design, construction and installation of the RPC-TOF-FD.
GSI in Darmstadt (Germany) operates the only facility allowing to accelerate nuclei of all chemical elements occurring on Earth. The facility has been closed for a few years and is slowly coming back to life. The performed upgrades will allow to put into operation the SIS100 1.1 km ring accelerator, the key component of the new Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) currently under construction.