The construction and operating characteristics of a cathode strip chamber system designed to measure the reaction vertices of a stopping kaon beam

The design, construction, and performance of a segmented-target, cathode-strip, tracking-detector is discussed. The chamber was made of low-Z materials in order to allow photons to leave the target region. It was used to determine the reaction vertex of stopping kaons, and was successfully operated in a high-intensity kaon beamline at the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron at Brookhaven National Laboratory. The vertical and horizontal resolutions of the stopping kaon reaction positions were σX∼0.454mm and σY∼1.180mm, respectively. The uncertainty in the longitudinal (Z) direction is given by one-half the thickness of a target segment.