UA9 Instrumentation and Detectors in the CERN-SPS

The UA9 experiment was installed in the CERN-SPS in March '09 in view of investigating crystal assisted collimation in coasting mode. Inside a vacuum vessel, two 2 mm long silicon crystals, bent by about 150 microradians are mounted on accurate goniometers, and a small 10mm long tungsten target is used to compare the effect of crystals with that of a standard scatterer. A moveable 60 cm long block of tungsten is located downstream at about 90 degrees phase advance to intercept the deflected beam. Scintillators, gas GEMs and beam loss monitors measure nuclear loss rates induced by the interaction of the halo beam in the crystal itself. A Roman pot is installed in the path of the deflected particles in between the crystal and the collimator, equipped with a Medipix detector to reconstruct the transverse spot of the impinging beam. Finally UA9 takes advantage of an LHC-collimator prototype installed close to the Roman pot to help in setting the beam conditions and to reveal in a destructive manner the deflected beam shape. This paper describes in details the hardware installed, and the procedures developed to set-up and detect the channeling conditions.