Merging and splitting of clusters in the electromagnetic calorimeter of the KLOE detector

TL;DR

This study investigates how merging and splitting of clusters in the KLOE electromagnetic calorimeter affect the detection of high-multiplicity gamma decays, using detailed Monte Carlo simulations to assess efficiency and biases.

Contribution

The paper introduces a comprehensive Monte Carlo simulation incorporating full detector geometry to analyze cluster merging and splitting effects in the KLOE calorimeter.

Findings

Increasing quantum efficiency does not significantly improve cluster identification.

Merging and splitting effects impact the reconstruction of eta and K_short meson decays.

Simulation results help optimize detector performance and data analysis strategies.

Abstract

The work was carried out in the framework of the KLOE collaboration studying the decays of the phi meson produced in the DAFNE accelerator in the collisions of electron and positron. The main aim of this thesis was investigation of the influence of the merging and splitting of clusters in decays with the high multiplicity of gamma quanta, which are at most biased by these effects. For this aim we implemented the full geometry and realistic material composition of the barrel electromagnetic calorimeter in FLUKA package. The prepared Monte Carlo based simulation program permits to achieve a fast generation of the detector response separately for each interested reaction. The program was used to study the reconstruction efficiency with the KLOE clustering algorithm as a function of the photocathode quantum efficiency. It was also used to investigate merging and splitting probabilities as a function of the quantum efficiency. The conducted studies indicated that the increase of quantum efficiency does not improve significantly the identification of clusters. The influence of these effects was estimated for eta meson decays into 3 neutral pions and K_short meson into 2 neutral pions.