Particle detector - Definition and Overview

In experimental particle physics, a particle detector is a device used to track and identify high-energy particles, such as produced by nuclear decay, cosmic radiation, or reactions in a particle accelerator. Detectors designed for modern accelerators are huge, both in size and in cost. The notion counter is often used instead of detector.

Types of detectors

Modern particle detectors are constructed from several of these types, often arranged similar to the layers of an onion. Each type forms a subsystem of the complete particle detector.

• Cloud chamber,Diffusion chamber
• Bubble chamber
• Photographic plates
• Photomultiplier
• Photodiodes
• Streamer tube
• Cherenkov detector,Aerogel detector
• RICH (Ring Imaging Cherenkov Detector)
• Transition radiation detector
• Gaseous ionization detectors (Ionization chamber, Proportional counter, Geiger-Mueller tube)
• Hodoscope
• Semiconductor detector
• Spark chamber,Wire chamber
• Drift chamber,Jet chamber
• Multiwire Proportional Chamber (MWPC)
• Straw chamber
• Silicon detector
• Time Projection Chamber (TPC)
• MicroStrip Gas Chamber (MSGC)
• Calorimeter
• Time of flight detector

Installations of particle detectors

At Colliders

• At CERN
  • for LEP
    • The ALEPH detector for LEP at CERN (http://teachers.web.cern.ch/teachers/archiv/HST2001/detectors/trackdata/ALEPH.htm).
    • DELPHI
    • L3
    • OPAL
  • for SPS
    • The Gargamelle detector for SPS at CERN (http://hepweb.rl.ac.uk/ppUKpics/POW/pr_980624.html).
    • The NA49 experiment investigating hadronic interactions at the CERN SPS (http://na49info.cern.ch)
  • for LHC
    • CMS.
    • ATLAS
• At Fermilab
  • for Tevatron
    • The CDF detector (http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/particles/fermidet.html).
    • D0
• At DESY
  • for HERA
    • The H1 Detector for HERA at DESY (http://www-h1.desy.de/general/home/home.html).
    • ZEUS
• At SLAC
  • for SLC
    • The SLD detector at SLAC (http://www2.slac.stanford.edu/vvc/detectors.html).
• Others
  • The MECO detector at UC Irvine (http://meco.ps.uci.edu/).

Without Colliders

• Super-Kamiokande
• AMANDA

See also

• List of particles

External references

General Information

• The Particle Detector BriefBook (http://rd11.web.cern.ch/RD11/rkb/titleD.html)
• How to Build a Cloud Chamber (http://www.lns.cornell.edu/~adf4/cloud.html)

Example Usage of Particle