The barrel DIRC of the PANDA experiment

Cooled antiproton beams of unprecedented intensities in the energy range of 1-15 GeV/c will be used at the PANDA experiment at FAIR to perform high precision experiments in the charmed quark sector. The charged particle identification in the barrel region needs a thin detector operating in a strong magnetic field. Both requirements can be met by a Cherenkov detector using the DIRC principle. Combining the time of arrival of the photons with their spatial image determines not only the particles velocity, but also the wavelength of the photons. Therefore, dispersion correction at the lower and upper detection thresholds is possible. Special care has to be taken to couple the photon detector to the barrel radiator bars. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved