A treatment of the experimental techniques and instrumentation most often used in nuclear and particle physics experiments as well as in various other experiments, providing useful results and formulae, technical know-how and informative details. This second edition has been revised, while sections on Cherenkov radiation and radiation protection have been updated and extended.

I have been teaching courses on experimental techniques in nuclear and particle physics to master students in physics and in engineering for many years. This book grew out of the lecture notes I made for these students. The physics and engineering students have rather different expectations of what such a course should be like. I hope that I have nevertheless managed to write a book that can satisfy the needs of these different target audiences. The lectures themselves, of course, need to be adapted to the needs of each group of students. An engineering student will not qu- tion a statement like “the velocity of the electrons in atoms is ?1% of the velocity of light”, a physics student will. Regarding units, I have written factors h and c explicitly in all equations throughout the book. For physics students it would be preferable to use the convention that is common in physics and omit these constants in the equations, but that would probably be confusing for the engineering students. Physics students tend to be more interested in theoretical physics courses. However, physics is an experimental science and physics students should und- stand how experiments work, and be able to make experiments work. This is an open access book.

This book is an outgrowth of an advanced laboratory course in experimental nuclear of Geneva and particle physics the author gave to physics majors at the University 1978 -1983. The course was offered to third and fourth year students, during the years the latter of which had, at this point in their studies, chosen to specialize in experi mental nuclear or particle physics. This implied that they would go on to do a "diplome" thesis with one of the high-or intermediate-energy research groups in the physics department. The format of the course was such that the students were required to concentrate on only one experiment during the trimester, rather than perform a series of experiments as is more typical of a traditional course of this type. Their tasks thus included planning the experiment, learning the relevant techniques, setting up and troubleshooting the measuring apparatus, calibration, data-taking and analysis, as well as responsibility for maintaining their equipment, i. e. , tasks resembling those in a real experiment. This more intensive involvement provided the students with a better understanding of the experimental problems encountered in a professional experiment and helped instill a certain independence and confidence which would prepare them for entry into a research group in the department. Teaching assistants were present to help the students during the trimester and a series of weekly lectures was also given on various topics in experimental nuclear and particle physics.

This textbook fills the gap between the very basic and the highly advanced volumes that are widely available on the subject. It offers a concise but comprehensive overview of a number of topics, like general relativity, fission and fusion, which are otherwise only available with much more detail in other textbooks. Providing a general introduction to the underlying concepts (relativity, fission and fusion, fundamental forces), it allows readers to develop an idea of what these two research fields really involve. The book uses real-world examples to make the subject more attractive and encourage the use of mathematical formulae. Besides short scientists' biographies, diagrams, end-of-chapter problems and worked solutions are also included. Intended mainly for students of scientific disciplines such as physics and chemistry who want to learn about the subject and/or the related techniques, it is also useful to high school teachers wanting to refresh or update their knowledge and to interested non-experts.

Experimental Techniques in High-Energy Nuclear and Particle Physics is a compilation of outstanding technical papers and reviews of the ingenious methods developed for experimentation in modern nuclear and particle physics. This book, a second edition, provides a balanced view of the major tools and technical concepts currently in use, and elucidates the basic principles that underly the detection devices. Several of the articles in this volume have never been published, or have appeared in relatively inaccessible journals. Although the emphasis is on charged-particle tracking and calorimetry, general reviews of ionization detectors and Monte Carlo techniques are also included.This book serves as a compact source of reference for graduate students and experimenters in the fields of nuclear and particle physics, seeking information on some of the major ideas and techniques developed for modern experiments in these fields.

Physical Methods, Instruments and Measurements theme is a component of the Encyclopedia of Physical Sciences, Engineering and Technology Resources which is part of the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), an integrated compendium of twenty Encyclopedias. The Theme provides a complete survey of the present status of our knowledge of modern physical instruments and measurements. It is organized in the following main topics: Measurements and Measurement Standards; Sources of Particles and Radiation, Detectors and Sensors; Imaging and Characterizing – Trace Element Analysis; Technology of Physical Experiments; Applications of Measurements and Instrumentation which are then expanded into multiple subtopics, each as a chapter. These four volumes are aimed at the following five major target audiences: University and College Students, Educators, Professional Practitioners, Research Personnel and Policy Analysts, Managers, and Decision Makers and NGOs

Now thoroughly revised and up-dated, this book describes techniques for handling and analysing data obtained from high-energy and nuclear physics experiments. The observation of particle interactions involves the analysis of large and complex data samples. Beginning with a chapter on real-time data triggering and filtering, the book describes methods of selecting the relevant events from a sometimes huge background. The use of pattern recognition techniques to group the huge number of measurements into physically meaningful objects like particle tracks or showers is then examined and the track and vertex fitting methods necessary to extract the maximum amount of information from the available measurements are explained. The final chapter describes tools and methods which are useful to the experimenter in the physical interpretation and in the presentation of the results. This indispensable guide will appeal to graduate students, researchers and computer and electronic engineers involved with experimental physics.

Physical Methods, Instruments and Measurements theme is a component of the Encyclopedia of Physical Sciences, Engineering and Technology Resources which is part of the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), an integrated compendium of twenty Encyclopedias. The Theme provides a complete survey of the present status of our knowledge of modern physical instruments and measurements. It is organized in the following main topics: Measurements and Measurement Standards; Sources of Particles and Radiation, Detectors and Sensors; Imaging and Characterizing – Trace Element Analysis; Technology of Physical Experiments; Applications of Measurements and Instrumentation which are then expanded into multiple subtopics, each as a chapter. These four volumes are aimed at the following five major target audiences: University and College Students, Educators, Professional Practitioners, Research Personnel and Policy Analysts, Managers, and Decision Makers and NGOs.

An introduction to high-energy physics that prepares students to understand the experimental frontier The new experiments underway at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland may significantly change our understanding of elementary particle physics and, indeed, the universe. This textbook provides a cutting-edge introduction to the field, preparing first-year graduate students and advanced undergraduates to understand and work in LHC physics at the dawn of what promises to be an era of experimental and theoretical breakthroughs. Christopher Tully, an active participant in the work at the LHC, explains some of the most recent experiments in the field. But this book, which emerged from a course at Princeton University, also provides a comprehensive understanding of the subject. It explains every elementary particle physics process—whether it concerns nonaccelerator experiments, particle astrophysics, or the description of the early universe—as a gauge interaction coupled to the known building blocks of matter. Designed for a one-semester course that is complementary to a course in quantum field theory, the book gives special attention to high-energy collider physics, and includes a detailed discussion of the state of the search for the Higgs boson. Introduces elementary particle processes relevant to astrophysics, collider physics, and the physics of the early universe Covers experimental methods, detectors, and measurements Features a detailed discussion of the Higgs boson search Includes many challenging exercises Professors: A supplementary Instructor's Manual which provides solutions for Chapters 1-3 of the textbook, is available as a PDF. It is restricted to teachers using the text in courses. To obtain a copy, please email your request to: Ingrid_Gnerlich "at" press.princeton.edu.