Studies towards optimisation of the Analog Hadronic Calorimeter for future linear collider detectors

The Analog Hadronic Calorimeter (AHCAL) is a highly granular calorimeter developed in the CALICE collaboration for future linear collider detectors. Its design concept is based on 3×3 2 scintillator tiles readout by Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPM). With this design the ambitious required jet energy resolution of 3-4 % can be achieved using the Pandora Particle Flow Algorithm (PandoraPFA). Recent discussions concerning the overall size and cost of the ILD detector has triggered new studies to optimise AHCAL cell size. A smaller number of cells can reduce the detector cost but the corresponding larger cell size can lead to a degradation of the jet energy resolution. The AHCAL optimisation study therefore has to achieve the best balance between physics performance and cost. Recent studies using the latest version of PandoraPFA with improved pattern recognition have shown significant improvement of jet energy resolution. Moreover, a better energy reconstruction of single particles, in which software compensation plays an important role, can lead to further improvements. This talk will discuss the software compensation technique and its impact on the final cell size optimisation