Characterisation of different stages of hadronic showers using the CALICE Si-W ECAL physics prototype

Abstract

A detailed investigation of hadronic interactions is performed using $\pi^-$-mesons with energies in the range 2--10 GeV incident on a high granularity silicon-tungsten electromagnetic calorimeter. The data were recorded at FNAL in 2008. The region in which the $\pi^-$-mesons interact with the detector material and the produced secondary particles are characterised using a novel track-finding algorithm that reconstructs tracks within hadronic showers in a calorimeter in the absence of a magnetic field. The principle of carrying out detector monitoring and calibration using secondary tracks is also demonstrated.