Construction and Test of MDT Chambers for the ATLAS Muon Spectrometer

TL;DR

This paper details the design, construction, and testing of large-scale MDT chambers for the ATLAS muon spectrometer, demonstrating their precision and readiness for large-scale production at CERN.

Contribution

It introduces a full-scale prototype of MDT chambers with methods suitable for mass production and verifies their accuracy and performance through tests.

Findings

Wire positioning accuracy better than 20 microns (rms).

Successful performance tests in a muon beam at CERN.

Chamber production for ATLAS has commenced.

Abstract

The Monitored Drift Tube (MDT) chambers for the muon spectrometer of the AT- LAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) consist of 3-4 layers of pressurized drift tubes on either side of a space frame carrying an optical monitoring system to correct for deformations. The full-scale prototype of a large MDT chamber has been constructed with methods suitable for large-scale production. X-ray measurements at CERN showed a positioning accuracy of the sense wires in the chamber of better than the required 20 ?microns (rms). The performance of the chamber was studied in a muon beam at CERN. Chamber production for ATLAS now has started.