A spot-focusing Cerenkov counter for the detection of multiparticle events at high energies

A new type of Cerenkov counter is described for the detection of multiparticle events emitted from a small-size production target. The detector focuses the Cerenkov light produced by a particle of a given velocity beta /sub 0/ to a spot image. The counter produces an output of the angular coordinates and, for particles having gamma values within a given range, provides a determination of the velocity of each detected particle. The general principles of the design of this type of detector are presented, together with the computed results for a particular example. (7 refs).