A new prototype for the PANDA disc DIRC detector

The PANDA experiment at the future FAIR facility needs excellent particle identification to do precision studies of antiproton-proton reactions in the 1.5-15 GeV/c momentum range. To fulfill this need, two Cherenkov detectors will be installed in the PANDA target spectrometer, both based on the DIRC concept that uses internally reflected Cherenkov light to perform particle identification, with a focus on the separation of pions and kaons. The Disc-DIRC is designed to cap the forward region of theta angles between 5 and 22 degrees. It will be the first time that a 3D-Disc-DIRC is used for PID in a real physics experiment beyond prototyping. A new prototyping Disc-DIRC apparatus has been constructed at the JLU Giessen. Unlike previous prototypes, this one features a radiator as well as focusing elements made out of fused silica. The Cherenkov light is detected with 22 multi-anode-phototubes and 4 MCP-PMTs, totalling 608 individual pixels. Timing information for each of the latter is generated using the novel TRB3 system developed at GSI. The entire prototype was tested with an electron beam of several GeV/c provided by DESY in Hamburg. The components, their setup and a first analysis of the recorded data will be presented.