A pad readout detector for CRID/tracking at RHIC

The Physics goals of most RHIC experiments will require detectors able to do particle identification and tracking in a high multiplicity environment. In the search for a quark-gluon plasma, experiments at RHIC will look for signatures such as stangeness enhancement, J/ψ suppression and shifts in the ρ mass. The experiments will combine tracking in magnetic fields with time-of-flight arrays, Cherenkov counters and calorimetry. Cherenkov ring-imaging detectors will be a useful addition to the particle ID system of any RHIC experiment because of their abilities to operate in high multiplicity environments and do particle ID over momentum ranges difficult for either TOF or calorimetry. For small impact parameter Au-Au collisions at RHIC the authors expect midrapidity charged particle multiplicites of 0.02 /cm2 at 1 m in the momentum range of 0-2 GeV/c. Many QGP signatures will require that the experiments have the ability to separate leptons from hadrons, and pions from kaons and protons over a large momentum range. Research by other groups have shown that it is possible for a carefully designed CRID to do K/π/p separation up to 30 GeV/c and e/π separation up to 5 GeV/c. The particle identification power of a CRID will be a valuable inclusion in a RHIC experiment