Hadron Showers in a Digital Hadron Calorimeter

TL;DR

This paper presents experimental data from a prototype digital hadron calorimeter using Resistive Plate Chambers, compares it with simulations, and predicts performance for larger-scale detectors.

Contribution

It introduces a finely granulated digital hadron calorimeter prototype and evaluates its response to positive pions, providing validation against Monte Carlo simulations.

Findings

Data shows good agreement with simulations.

Event selection effectively distinguishes non-interacting and showering particles.

Predictions indicate promising performance for extended calorimeter designs.

Abstract

A small prototype of a finely granulated digital hadron calorimeter with Resistive Plate Chambers as active elements was exposed to positive pions of 1 >. 16 GeV energy from the Fermilab test beam. The event selection separates events with mostly non-interacting particles and events with hadronic showers which initiated in the front part of the calorimeter. The data are compared to a Monte Carlo simulation of the set-up. The paper concludes with predictions for the performance of an extended digital hadron calorimeter.