PANDA Website

The PANDA experiment of the FAIR facility will address open questions in hadron physics using antiproton beams in the momentum range of 1.5-15 GeV/c. The antiprotons are stored and cooled in the High Energy Storage Ring (HESR) and allow high precision spectroscopy in the energy range of closed and open charm. Two Cherenkov detectors using the principle of Detection of Internally Reflected Cherenkov light (DIRC) will provide excellent PID in the PANDA target spectrometer. The Endcap Disc DIRC separates pions from kaons better than 3σ up to momenta of 4 GeV/c in the forward direction, for polar angles from 5∘ to 22∘. It uses a fused silica radiator disk, consisting of four optically isolated quadrants. The Cherenkov photons are imaged on Microchannel-Plate PMTs (MCP-PMTs) by focusing lightguides. The Barrel DIRC cleanly separates pions from kaons for polar angles in the range of 22∘ - 140∘ and momenta up to 3.5 GeV/c. The barrel is formed by 16 sectors, each comprising three narrow fused silica radiator bars, with a flat mirror attached to one end and a spherical lens attached to the other, and a large fuse silica prism, coupled to each group of three lenses. The Cherenkov light is focused on the back side of the prism, where an array of lifetime-enhanced MCP-PMTs detects the photons. The designs are simulated and validated in test beams with prototypes and the Technical Design Reports of both devices have recently been completed. While mass production of some of the components has already started, the R&D for other important items, like the readout electronics or the shape and materials of the mechanical support, is still ongoing. This talk describes the status of the two DIRC projects and will discuss the remaining R&D activities.