The Ring Imaging Cherenkov detector for the CBM-Experiment

The mission of the future Compressed Baryonic Matter experiment, to be operated at the FAIR facility at GSI, Darmstadt, is the exploration of the properties of super-dense nuclear matter. In particular, the search for in-medium modifications of hadrons, the study of the transition from dense hadronic matter to quark-gluon matter, and the location of a critical endpoint in the phase diagram of strongly interacting matter are the principal physics goals of CBM. Detailed measurements of di-leptons and open charm probes are hoped to shed light to the existence of such effects. The Ring Imaging Cherenkov detector of CBM aims at a clean and efficient electron identification. It is foreseen to have CO2 as radiator gas and to be equipped with Hamamatsu multi-anode photomultiplier tubes. Herewith we present selected results of R and D studies and beam test measurements of the RICH prototype performed in October 2011 at the CERN/PS with negatively charged particles.