PA-PRO-2016-014

The PANDA detector at the international accelerator Facility for Antiproton and Ion
Research in Europe (FAIR) addresses fundamental questions of hadron physics. Experiments concerning
charmonium spectroscopy, the search for hybrids and glueballs and the interaction of hidden
and open charm particles with nucleons and nuclei will be performed with antiproton beams
impinging on hydrogen or nuclear targets. Cooled beams allow the precision scan of resonances in
formation experiments. The momentum range of the antiproton beam between 1.5 GeV/c and 15
GeV/c tests predictions by perturbation theory and will reveal deviations originating from strong
QCD. An excellent hadronic particle identification will be accomplished by DIRC (Detection of
Internally Reflected Cherenkov light) counters. The design for the barrel region is based on the successful
BABAR DIRC with several key improvements, such as fast photon timing and a compact
imaging region. DIRC designs based on different radiator geometries with several focusing options
were studied in simulation. The performance of each design was characterized in terms of photon
yield and single photon Cherenkov angle resolution. Selected design options were implemented in
prototypes and tested with hadronic particle beams at GSI and CERN.