Active targets and TPCs for nuclear physics experiments

Speaker

Gwen Grinyer, Regina

Abstract

The Active Target and Time Projection Chamber (ACTAR TPC) is an ambitious European project whose goal is to design and construct a gas-filled detection system to study nuclear reactions and exotic decays of rare isotopes produced furthest from stability. The core detection system will consist of a micro-pattern gaseous detector coupled to a highly pixelated pad plane with a pitch of 2x2 mm2. Both the channel density (25 channels/cm2) and total number of electronics channels (16384) are the highest that have been achieved by any nuclear physics detector to date. An overview of the project, the challenges associated with constructing such a device and the day-one physics program for ACTAR TPC when it goes online at the GANIL laboratory in France in 2018 will be described in detail.