Exploring Particle Signatures with the CMS Test Beam

From QNFellows

Submitter: Tom Loughran

The CMS Test Beam e-Lab could be used just for a single-class exploration of the idea of a particle signature: that different types of particles interact in characteristically different ways with various detector elements. Students can gain some idea of what an electron "looks like" to particle physicists: it looks much different than its similarly charged but much heavier cousin, the muon, for example.

To explore particle signatures, just choose the "test beam" data on the OGRE data page (rather than "simulated" or "run" data, like this:



, and have students explore just electrons (like this:



or just muons, or just pions in various plots (like this scatterplot of Ecal Vs Hcal energies:



Ask them to explain the physical meaning of a vertical line in a plot, like this:



What is the meaning of the vertical line near the Y axis? What would you have expected electrons of a range of different energies to look like in a plot of Ecal vs Hcal energies? What might be the meaning of the relatively fewer dots lying along the x axis? Etc.