Performance of the ICARUS T600 detector

The ICARUS detector is a liquid argon time projection chamber. It provides three dimensional imaging and calorimetry of ionizing particles over a large volume, with high granularity. This multipurpose detector opens up unique opportunities to look for phenomena beyond the Standard Model through the study of atmospheric, solar and supernova neutrinos, nucleon decay searches and neutrinos from the CERN to Gran Sasso beam. The ICARUS technology has reached maturity with the construction and test (during summer 2001) of a 600 ton detector, demonstrating the feasibility of building large mass devices relevant for non-accelerator physics. The collected data allow to assess the detector performance, i.e. the spatial reconstruction, calorimetry and particle identification, as well as the test of all technical aspects of the system (cryogenics, electronics, purification, etc). A summary of the detector performances and an overview of the general physics program of the ICARUS experiment is reported. ©2004 American Institute of Physics