TORCH—a Cherenkov based time-of-flight detector

Journal article

TORCH is an innovative high-precision time-of-flight system to provide particle identification in the difficult intermediate momentum region up to 10 GeV/c. It is also suitable for large-area applications. The detector provides a time-of-flight measurement from the imaging of Cherenkov photons emitted in a 1 cm thick quartz radiator. The photons propagate by total internal reflection to the edge of the quartz plate and are then focused onto an array of photon detectors at the periphery. A time-of-flight resolution of about 10-15 ps per incident charged particle needs to be achieved to allow a three sigma kaon-pion separation up to 10 GeV/c momentum for the TORCH located 9.5 m from the interaction point. Given ~30 detected photons per incident charged particle, this requires measuring the time-of-arrival of individual photons to about 70 ps. This paper will describe the design of a TORCH prototype involving a number of ground-breaking and challenging techniques.

Authors: van Dijk, M; Brook, N; Castillo García, L; Cowie, E; Cussans, D

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Journal: Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
• Volume: 766
• Issue: 10
• Pages: 118-122
• Publication date: 2014-12-01
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nima.2014.04.083
• ISSN: 0168-9002
• Keywords: Journal Article