A threshold gas Cherenkov detector for the Spin Asymmetries of the Nucleon Experiment

We report on the design, construction, commissioning, and performance of a threshold gas Cherenkov counter in an open configuration, which operates in a high luminosity environment and produces a high photo-electron yield. Part of a unique open geometry detector package called the Big Electron Telescope Array (BETA), this Cherenkov counter served to identify scattered electrons and reject produced pions in an inclusive scattering experiment known as the Spin Asymmetries of the Nucleon Experiment (SANE), E07-003 at Jefferson Lab. The experiment consisted of a measurement of double spin asymmetries A∥ and A⊥ of a polarized electron beam impinging on a polarized ammonia target. The Cherenkov counter׳s performance is characterised by a yield of about 20 photoelectrons per electron or positron track. Thanks to this large number of photoelectrons per track, the Cherenkov counter had enough resolution to identify electron-positron pairs from the conversion of photons resulting mainly from π0 decays.