High Temperature Superconductor Detector Magnets for Future Particle Physics Experiments

Abstract

Particle physics experiments make use of magnetic fields up to 4T to bend electrically charged particles such that their charge and momentum can be determined. The particle energy measurement requires a low amount of material, or ma-terial that is highly transparent to particles inside the calorimeter volume. The conflict between the small volume of space reserved for a magnet and having a field of several teslas inside the detector is often resolved by using superconducting magnets. Up to now, large particle physics detector magnets have been constructed with low temperature superconductors, but there are clear benefits from using high temperature superconductors in future particle physics detector designs, such as allowing for an elevated operating temperature and the reduced amount of superconductor needed. In addition to the HTS material itself, additional material is needed to support the Lorentz forces, and to temporarily carry the current in case of a quench since these magnets are always one-of-a-kind and they need to operate reliably and without damage in case of a failure scenario. The stabilizer has to be a low-density material for high particle transparency, such as aluminium. Since the density of the superconductor is a factor of 4 higher than the density of aluminium, a reduction of superconducting material also means an improvement of the particle transparency: the density of a material is directly related to its particle transparency. This paper presents a conceptual design for high temperature superconducting detector magnets and a study of the type of aluminium stabilizer used.