[en] Proton-proton correlations and correlations of protons, deuterons and tritons with α particles from spectator decays following ¹⁹⁷Au + ¹⁹⁷Au collisions at 1000 MeV per nucleon have been measured with two highly efficient detector hodoscopes. The constructed correlation functions, interpreted within the approximation of a simultaneous volume decay, indicate a moderate expansion and low breakup densities, similar to assumptions made in statistical multifragmentation models. (orig.)

[en] Kinetic energies of light fragments (A ≤ 10) from the decay of target spectators in ¹⁹⁷Au + ¹⁹⁷Au collisions at 1000 MeV per nucleon have been measured with high-resolution telescopes at backward angles. Except for protons and apart from the observed evaporation components, the kinetic-energy spectra exhibit slope temperatures of about 17 MeV, independent of the particle species, but not corresponding to the thermal or chemical degrees of freedom at breakup. It is suggested that these slope temperatures may reflect the intrinsic Fermi motion and thus the bulk density of the spectator system at the instant of becoming unstable. (orig.)

[en] High-performances 16-channel spectroscopy amplifier having high performances has been developed in a single width NIM unit. The pole zero cancellation, the coarse and fine grain, the shaping time, the output polarity and the output DC Offset can be adjusted through a serial interface. The selected values are stored in a non-volatile memory. Each channel has three analog outputs. The first has a nearly gaussian shape with gain from 0.5 to 256 (2,048 possible values), the second is a similar pulse with a gain 10 times the chosen value of the first output. The last is a fast signal table for timing purposes

[en] A data acquisition system based on VME standard modules has been designed for MULTICS, a multi-element detector array. The system is composed of a master crate housing CPUs, Memories, Interface and Pattern boards. Up to 15 VME slave crates can be connected using the VMV vertical bus for ADC and TDC boards. A Macintosh Quadra is used as a console to provide a user friendly environment to send commands to the CPUs. Tools in the system include collecting and storing data, displaying histograms, handling all hardware parameters (high and low thresholds, rise time protection etc.). Diagnostic functions and error messages are also available to detect hardware failures or incorrect settings for the modules

[en] A 32 channel 12 bit Time to Digital Converter (TDC) has been designed to fit in a single unit VME 6U. 32 Time to Amplitude Converter (TAC) sections and a multiplexer circuit are followed by a fast 12 bit ADC. The total handling and conversion time for all the channels is less than 10 micros. The differential non linearity is kept below 2% of the average channel width. The Common Start/Stop mode, the Full Scale Range, the individual low and high threshold values and the self-test-mode are software selectable. The module has Zero Suppression and Chained Block Transfer protocol capabilities

[en] To regulate the gas pressure and high voltage bias in a large number of gas-filled detectors, a system has been realized based on the VME bus. The amount of gas is kept constant adjusting the pressure value as a function of the temperature. The performances of this system have been tested and compared with a commercial device. The results satisfy our requirement

[en] This paper describes a new kind of pulse generator, able to provide not only two pairs of coincident pulses, with continuously variable amplitude (0-5 V) for each pulse and delay (40-150 μs) between the two pairs - energy simulation - but also the corresponding timing signals - time of flight simulation - with different intrinsic variable delays ranging from 50 ps up to 128 ns, in steps of 50 ps, with a proper time resolution better than 15 ps. Some experimental results, obtained using the present device, are also reported. (orig.)

[en] In the framework of the HADES (High Acceptance DiElectron Spectrometer) collaboration the authors are developing the Time Of Flight (TOF) wall subdetector. In order to efficiently select events with e⁺e^- pairs produced in the nuclear matter, the TOF wall must be able to resolve electrons from pions up to 0.5 GeV/c and from protons up to 2 GeV/c. Because the short flight path of about 2m requires a 100--150 ps time resolution, the authors are building a granular system made of scintillator rods readout on both ends by means of photomultipliers, capable of such performance

[en] The characteristics of hybrid low-noise general-purpose preamplifiers are described. The basic performances are reported. They have been used in connection with ionization chambers, large-area Si detectors and photodiodes. (orig.)

[en] A four channel spectroscopy amplifier is described where coarse and fine amplification gains can be remotely adjusted using high speed CAENET serial line controllers. (orig.)