Multianode Photomultiplier Tubes for the LHCb RICH Photodetectors

The LHCB experiment is being built at the Large Hadron Collider facility at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. The aim of the experiment is the precise measurement of CP violation parameters in the B-meson system. A critical requirement of the detector is a good pion/kaon separation provided by two Ring Imaging CHerenkov (RICH) counters. This thesis presents studies on the feasibility of using Multianode PhotoMultiplier Tubes (MaPMTs) as photodetectors in the LHCb RICH. We will establish the performances of MaPMTs in magnetic fields and also investigate how to shield them. Finally we present a testbeam analysis of a cluster of MaPMTs equipped with lenses at the CERN PS beam. The purpose of this testbeam was to demonstrate the operation of MaPMTS in a RICH prototype using the LHCb readout electronics.