INSIGHT at ELSA

The new INSIGHT@ELSA-experiment, as important part of our new cluster of excellence ”Color meets Flavor”, is presently set up at our local electron accelerator ELSA. The experiment opens up worldwide unique possibilities as it features a unique combination of an almost complete angular coverage for high-resolution photon measurements, charged-particle detection and the ability to perform measurements using a polarized beam and a polarized target. The experiment will allow to investigate the important sector of strange baryon resonances, where only very little is known and progress is hampered by the lack of precise data since decades. INSIGHT will allow the detailed study of Λ^∗- and Σ^∗- resonances and the search for exotic states such as pentaquarks.

The new INSIGHT experiment will reuse the main calorimeter of the CBELSA/TAPS experiment, complemented by several new sub-detector systems based on state-of-the-art detector technologies. Our group is responsible for two of the new detector systems: The Time-of-Flight (ToF) wall, measuring the time a particle needs to reach the ToF-wall. Here reaching an excellent time resolution is important to determine the type of a particle (proton, kaon, pion) for a certain momentum measured in the forward spectrometer (PID).

In addition, the PANDA forward endcap calorimeter (FWEC) is presently being set up in the mounting hall of the FTD in collaboration with our colleagues of the PANDA-collaboration for its use in INSIGHT. The FWEC will be able to measure photons as well as electrons/positrons with excellent resolution. It consists of 3856 PbWO₄ crystals and will be operated at -25^◦C. At this temperature the light output of the PbWO₄-crystals increases by a factor of four.