High spatial resolution particle physics detectors

Abstract

The basic principles needed for the construction of high spatial resolution particle physics detectors are presented and show that resolutions approaching one micron in all three spatial dimensions can be attained. This permits the study of states with lifetimes as small as 10 −16 s. The high spatial resolution technique applied to bubble chambers transforms them into new instruments capable of handling beam fluxes of 10 6 particles per second. This flux yields 10 6 events per μb per 2×10 5 accelerator machine cycles. As bubble chambers can be built using liquid hydrogen, small cross-section reactions producing new massive short-lived states and dense multihadron shower events can be studied in hydrogen collisions with high statistical and systematic accuracy and precision. These same principles can be applied to the construction of high spatial resolution neutrino bubble chamber detectors ideal for tau-neutrino detection. Small thin ultrasonically expanded bubble chambers of still higher spatial resolution are possible. Expansion and diffusion cloud chambers can also be built as high spatial resolution detectors of very low density and finally, track imaging counter detectors of high spatial resolution may also be possible.