Liquid argon calorimeter design study using the CALOR89 code system

Abstract The CALOR89 code system, already in wide use, is further validated against the recently available data for a test module of the calorimeter of the D0 detector, made of uranium absorbers and liquid argon. The experimental data considered include energy containment as a function of depth, the electron and pion resolutions, and the compensation ratios at 25 and 100 GeV/ c . The code system is then used to predict the performance of a Pb-LAr test module under construction and to test the expected performance improvement of a second Pb-LAr module with steel-cladded Pb absorbers. It is found that with a fixed total absorber thickness of 12 mm and LAr thickness of 4 mm, varying the thickness of the steel cladding has minor effects on the compensation ratios. However, for 20 GeV/ c incident electrons and 0.5-mm steel cladding, there is a significant improvement in energy resolution.