CASTOR (standing for "Centauro And Strange Object Research")
[
] is an electromagnetic (EM) and hadronic (HAD)
calorimeter of the
CMS
CMS may refer to:
Computing
* Call management system
* CMS-2 (programming language), used by the United States Navy
* Code Morphing Software, a technology used by Transmeta
* Collection management system for a museum collection
* Color managem ...
experiment at
CERN
The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in a northwestern suburb of Gene ...
. It is based on plates made out of
tungsten
Tungsten, or wolfram, is a chemical element with the symbol W and atomic number 74. Tungsten is a rare metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively as compounds with other elements. It was identified as a new element in 1781 and first isolat ...
and
quartz
Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical form ...
layers, positioned around the beam pipe in the very forward region of the CMS (at 14.385 m from the
interaction point
In particle physics, an interaction point (IP) is the place where particles collide in an accelerator experiment. The ''nominal'' interaction point is the design position, which may differ from the ''real'' or ''physics'' interaction point, where ...
), covering the
pseudorapidity
In experimental particle physics, pseudorapidity, \eta, is a commonly used spatial coordinate describing the angle of a particle relative to the beam axis. It is defined as
:\eta \equiv -\ln\left tan\left(\frac\right)\right
where \theta is the a ...
range 5.1 — 6.55. It is used in collider
physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...
,
proton
A proton is a stable subatomic particle, symbol , H+, or 1H+ with a positive electric charge of +1 ''e'' elementary charge. Its mass is slightly less than that of a neutron and 1,836 times the mass of an electron (the proton–electron mass ...
-proton collisions and
heavy ion
High-energy nuclear physics studies the behavior of nuclear matter in energy regimes typical of high-energy physics. The primary focus of this field is the study of heavy-ion collisions, as compared to lighter atoms in other particle accelerato ...
collisions, for example lead collisions. It is designed to search for
strangelets
A strangelet (pronounced ) is a hypothetical particle consisting of a bound state of roughly equal numbers of up, down, and strange quarks. An equivalent description is that a strangelet is a small fragment of strange matter, small enough to be c ...
and
centauro event
A Centauro event is a kind of anomalous event observed in cosmic-ray detectors since 1972. They are so named because their shape resembles that of a centaur: i.e., highly asymmetric.
If some versions of string theory are correct, then high-e ...
s, kinds of
exotic matter in the
baryon
In particle physics, a baryon is a type of composite subatomic particle which contains an odd number of valence quarks (at least 3). Baryons belong to the hadron family of particles; hadrons are composed of quarks. Baryons are also classified ...
dense, very forward phase region in
lead
Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...
(
Pb) collisions at the
particle accelerator LHC, CERN near
Geneva
Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...
.
References
External links
*
Does dark matter trigger strange stars?PhysicsWorld.com.
* CMS collaboration
CMS Detector Performance Summaries 22 Sep 2010.
{{CERN
CERN