NA62 Low Mass Spectrometer

The NA62 experiment at CERN aims at a precision measurement of the ultra-rare decay . A low mass (∼ 1.8%X0) spectrometer, whose construction is ongoing, has been designed to track charged kaon decays products. The system operates in vacuum, and will be operative in October 2014, when the first physics run is scheduled. The straw detector is made of 4 stations, each equipped with 1792 straws, arranged in 4 views (X, Y, U and V). A high aperture magnet (MNP33), placed between the second and the third chamber, provides a 0.36T dipole vertical B-field, required to measure the momentum of the charged particles. A 64-straws prototype was constructed in 2010. It was used as test bench for electronics commissioning and detector characterization. Time resolution and space-time relation were measured. A first test with a full chamber and final beam setup was performed in November 2012.