Magnetic spectrometer

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A magnetic spectrometer is a device that can measure the impulse distribution and thus also the respective energy of charged particles by using a magnetic field .

Basic principle

The measurement uses the fact that, because of the speed-dependent Lorentz force, charged particles in the magnetic field are more strongly deflected when their speed (and thus their momentum) is greater. Therefore one can infer their momentum from the trajectory or the point of impact of the particles.

If additional information about the particles is collected by additional scintillation counters , detectors for Cherenkov radiation or a time-of-flight measurement , the particles can also be identified. For example, if the velocity and the charge of the particle are known, the mass of the particle can be determined by measuring the momentum.

The arrangement of the magnetic deflection fields is often used to identify a magnetic spectrometer; Q3D spectrographs (one quadrupole magnet and three dipole magnets), for example, are common. An important parameter for a magnetic spectrometer is the pulse resolution.

Areas of application

Magnetic spectrometers are mainly used in experiments in particle physics .

In nuclear scattering processes and nuclear reactions, statements about the type, energy and number of products can be made with great accuracy depending on the scattering angle. Magnetic spectrometers are often used to analyze alpha and beta decays. The Cosmic radiation is often with magnetic spectrometers (examined about the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer , which is operated on the ISS or the payload for Antimatter Exploration and Light-nuclei Astrophysics , shortly PAMELA , which as a payload of the Resurs-DK1 since 2006 the earth circled), collision processes with kaons are also specifically investigated.

See also

literature

  • Klaus Bethge , Gertrud Walter, Bernhard Wiedemann: Nuclear Physics: An Introduction . Springer, 2007, ISBN 978-3-540-74566-2 , pp. 135 f .
  • Norbert Lang: Near-threshold production of eta mesons in the proton-neutron collision at the ANKE magnetic spectrometer . University of Münster, Department of Physics, 2004, urn : nbn: de: hbz: 6-79629656312 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Experiments for the detection of cosmic rays (PDF; 867 kB)
  2. ↑ KAOS magnetic spectrometer (in Mainz)