Techniques For Nuclear And Particle Physics Experiments

A treatment of the experimental techniques and instrumentation most often used in nuclear and particle physics experiments as well as in various other experiments, providing useful results and formulae, technical know-how and informative details. This second edition has been revised, while sections on Cherenkov radiation and radiation protection have been updated and extended.

The book is based on a laboratory course in nuclear physics given to advanced students. It treats the experimental techniques and instrumentationmost often used in nuclear and particle physics experiments as well as in various other experimental sciences. It provides most useful results and formulae, technical know-how and informative details on -interactionof radiation in matter; - radion protection and radioactive sources; - statistics for the interpretation and analysis of data; - principles and operation of the main types of detectors (ionization, scintillation and semiconductor detectors); - nuclear electronics instrumentation (NIM, CAMAC); - various systems and techniques for experiments. Thanks to the author's long teaching experience the material is presented in a verypractical, hands-on way making the book a useful text and lab companion for students and experienced scientists.

I have been teaching courses on experimental techniques in nuclear and particle physics to master students in physics and in engineering for many years. This book grew out of the lecture notes I made for these students. The physics and engineering students have rather different expectations of what such a course should be like. I hope that I have nevertheless managed to write a book that can satisfy the needs of these different target audiences. The lectures themselves, of course, need to be adapted to the needs of each group of students. An engineering student will not qu- tion a statement like “the velocity of the electrons in atoms is ?1% of the velocity of light”, a physics student will. Regarding units, I have written factors h and c explicitly in all equations throughout the book. For physics students it would be preferable to use the convention that is common in physics and omit these constants in the equations, but that would probably be confusing for the engineering students. Physics students tend to be more interested in theoretical physics courses. However, physics is an experimental science and physics students should und- stand how experiments work, and be able to make experiments work. This is an open access book.

This book is an outgrowth of an advanced laboratory course in experimental nuclear of Geneva and particle physics the author gave to physics majors at the University 1978 -1983. The course was offered to third and fourth year students, during the years the latter of which had, at this point in their studies, chosen to specialize in experi mental nuclear or particle physics. This implied that they would go on to do a "diplome" thesis with one of the high-or intermediate-energy research groups in the physics department. The format of the course was such that the students were required to concentrate on only one experiment during the trimester, rather than perform a series of experiments as is more typical of a traditional course of this type. Their tasks thus included planning the experiment, learning the relevant techniques, setting up and troubleshooting the measuring apparatus, calibration, data-taking and analysis, as well as responsibility for maintaining their equipment, i. e. , tasks resembling those in a real experiment. This more intensive involvement provided the students with a better understanding of the experimental problems encountered in a professional experiment and helped instill a certain independence and confidence which would prepare them for entry into a research group in the department. Teaching assistants were present to help the students during the trimester and a series of weekly lectures was also given on various topics in experimental nuclear and particle physics.

Experimental Techniques in High-Energy Nuclear and Particle Physics is a compilation of outstanding technical papers and reviews of the ingenious methods developed for experimentation in modern nuclear and particle physics. This book, a second edition, provides a balanced view of the major tools and technical concepts currently in use, and elucidates the basic principles that underly the detection devices. Several of the articles in this volume have never been published, or have appeared in relatively inaccessible journals. Although the emphasis is on charged-particle tracking and calorimetry, general reviews of ionization detectors and Monte Carlo techniques are also included.This book serves as a compact source of reference for graduate students and experimenters in the fields of nuclear and particle physics, seeking information on some of the major ideas and techniques developed for modern experiments in these fields.

This 1986 book, reissued as OA, gives a balanced overview of the most important topics in experimental particle physics.

Experimental Techniques in High-Energy Nuclear and Particle Physics is a compilation of outstanding technical papers and reviews of the ingenious methods developed for experimentation in modern nuclear and particle physics. This book, a second edition, provides a balanced view of the major tools and technical concepts currently in use, and elucidates the basic principles that underly the detection devices. Several of the articles in this volume have never been published, or have appeared in relatively inaccessible journals. Although the emphasis is on charged-particle tracking and calorimetry, general reviews of ionization detectors and Monte Carlo techniques are also included.This book serves as a compact source of reference for graduate students and experimenters in the fields of nuclear and particle physics, seeking information on some of the major ideas and techniques developed for modern experiments in these fields.