The soudan 2 experiment

Soudan 2 is an 1100-ton tracking calorimeter which is being constructed to search for nucleon decay. The detector consists of finely segmented iron instrumented with drift tubes, and records three spatial coordinates and dE/dx for every gas crossing. Excellent event-reconstruction capability, particle identification, and muon sign and direction determination give superior rejection of the neutrino background to nucleon decay in many modes. The first 275 tons of Soudan 2 is operating and a charged-particle test beam calibration is under way. Construction is scheduled for completion in 1992. 4 refs., 6 figs., 2 tabs