Common Test Facilities
Conveners: Eraldo Oliveri (CERN), Yorgos Tsipolitis (NTU Athens)
The development of robust and efficient MPGDs entails the understanding of their fundamental properties and performance at several stages of their development. This implies a significant investment for detector test beam activities to perform the R&D needed, to test prototypes and to qualify final detector system designs, including integrated system tests. The measurements in test-beam facilities cover efficiencies, noise, time, position and energy resolutions - basically all the critical performance parameters for new detector systems. Additionally, characterization of specific detector behaviors operated in large particle background demands some targeted aging tests in irradiation facilities.
A common effort in this direction is needed because the number of groups involved in MPGD development has grown very significantly and will still do so during the coming years. As members of the RD-51 collaboration, research groups will get easier access to the facilities inside RD-51 collaborating institutes and at CERN, and, most important, share resources, make common requests and group experiments. The two tasks are (1) Development and maintenance of common "Test-Beam Facility"; and (2) Development and maintenance of common “Irradiation Facility".