TABLE OF CONTENTS Physics is an experimental science and experiments provide the foundation for our understanding of nature and of physical laws. As we have argued repeatedly, nowhere has the need for experiments been greater than in the development of nuclear and particle physics. In these sub-atomic domains, scattering of particles from each other provides the primary source of information. The experiments are often quite challenging in their own right, and the experimental techniques can be as fascinating as the underlying structure they are meant to study. In this and in chapter the following two chapters, we will discuss some of the principles and devices that form the basis of experimentation in nuclear and particle physics. Most modern experiments rely on the application of a variety of exceedingly sophisticated electronic and computer tools. These tools provide the means for automatically preselecting interactions of greatest interest and of handling of enormous volumes of scientific data. We will not cover these important areas of experimentation, but will rather restrict ourselves to the more general ideas encountered in the acceleration of probe particles to high energies and in the detection of particles produced in sub-atomic collisions. We begin with the principles underlying the detection of different kinds of particles, and defer the description of detectors and accelerators to following chapters.
In order to be detected, an object must leave some trace of its presence. That is, it must deposit energy in its wake. Ideally, detectors should help us observe particles without affecting them...
