High precision momentum calibration of the magnetic spectrometers at MAMI for hypernuclear binding energy determination

We propose a new method for absolute momentum calibration of magnetic spectrometers used in nuclear physics, using the time-of-flight (TOF) differences of pairs of particles with different masses. In cases where the flight path is not known, a calibration can be determined by using the TOF differences of two pair combinations of three particles. A Cherenkov detector, read out by a radio frequency photomultiplier tube, is considered as the high-resolution and highly stable TOF detector. By means of Monte Carlo simulations it is demonstrated that the magnetic spectrometers at the MAMI electron-scattering facility can be calibrated absolutely with an accuracy δp/p≤10−4, which will be crucial for high precision determination of hypernuclear masses.