Transition Radiation Detectors

TL;DR

This paper reviews the principles, design, and current applications of transition radiation detectors, focusing on their use in particle identification at the LHC and in space-based experiments.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of modern TRDs, emphasizing their design, particle discrimination methods, and current operational detectors at the LHC and in astrophysics.

Findings

Analysis of radiator and detector configurations

Evaluation of particle discrimination techniques

Overview of TRDs in current high-energy physics experiments

Abstract

We review the basic features of transition radiation and how they are used for the design of modern Transition Radiation Detectors (TRD). The discussion will include the various realizations of radiators as well as a discussion of the detection media and aspects of detector construction. With regard to particle identification we assess the different methods for efficient discrimination of different particles and outline the methods for the quantification of this property. Since a number of comprehensive reviews already exist, we predominantly focus on the detectors currently operated at the LHC. To a lesser extent we also cover some other TRDs, which are planned or are currently being operated in balloon or space-borne astro-particle physics experiments.