Abstract
The Advanced GAmma Tracking Array (AGATA) is a European project to develop and operate the next generation γ-ray spectrometer. AGATA is based on the technique of γ-ray energy tracking in electrically segmented high-purity germanium crystals. This technique requires the accurate determination of the energy, time and position of every interaction as a γ ray deposits its energy within the detector volume. Reconstruction of the full interaction path results in a detector with very high efficiency and excellent spectral response. The realisation of γ-ray tracking and AGATA is a result of many technical advances. These include the development of encapsulated highly segmented germanium detectors assembled in a triple cluster detector cryostat, an electronics system with fast digital sampling and a data acquisition system to process the data at a high rate. The full characterisation of the crystals was measured and compared with detector-response simulations. This enabled pulse-shape analysis algorithms, to extract energy, time and position, to be employed. In addition, tracking algorithms for event reconstruction were developed. The first phase of AGATA is now complete and operational in its first physics campaign. In the future AGATA will be moved between laboratories in Europe and operated in a series of campaigns to take advantage of the different beams and facilities available to maximise its science output. The paper reviews all the achievements made in the AGATA project including all the necessary infrastructure to operate and support the spectrometer.
Highlights
Contemporary nuclear physics research aims at understanding the microscopic and mesoscopic features of the nuclear many-body system, determined by the effective interactions and underlying symmetries
In the Mars Gamma-Ray Tracking (MGT) [93] and the Orsay Forward Tracking (OFT) [92] codes, both based on the forward-tracking technique, points are grouped into clusters according to their relative angular separation
The realisation of the AGATA spectrometer is a result of many technological advances
Summary
Contemporary nuclear physics research aims at understanding the microscopic and mesoscopic features of the nuclear many-body system, determined by the effective interactions and underlying symmetries. The direction of emission of each individual γ ray can be determined with high precision, which is crucial for a good Doppler energy correction and to achieve a good energy resolution even when γ rays are emitted from a fast moving nucleus, as is the case in most nuclear reactions This radically new concept constitutes a dramatic advance in γ-ray detection that will have wide-ranging applications in medical imaging, astrophysics, nuclear safeguards and radioactive-waste monitoring, as well as establish a new level of detection capability for nuclear-structure studies. This paper describes concisely the AGATA spectrometer and summarizes all the necessary developments that have been performed by the AGATA collaboration for its design, construction and operation These developments range from advances in Ge detector technology, digital data acquisition systems, signal decomposition and γ-ray interaction reconstruction, and in many areas of the infrastructure needed to support and operate such a complex device
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