The module was used as part of the muon identification system on the barrel of the DELPHI detector at LEP, and was in active use from 1989 to 2000. The module consists of 7 individual muons chambers arranged in 2 layers. Chambers in the upper layer are staggered by half a chamber width with respect to the lower layer. Each individual chamber is a drift chamber consisting of an anode wire, 47 microns in diameter, and a wrapped copper delay line. Each chamber provided 3 signal for each muon passing through the chamber, from which a 3D space-point could be reconstructed.

OPAL was one of the 4 experiments installed at the LEP particle accelerator from 1989 to 2000. This is a slice of the outermost layer of OPAL : the muon chambers. This outside layer detects particles which are not stopped by the previous layers. These are mostly muons.

When you look through the glass at a picture behind, the picture appears raised up because light is slowed down in the dense glass. It is this density (4.06 gcm-3) that makes lead glass attractive to physicists. The refractive index of the glass is 1.708 at 400nm (violet light), meaning that light travels in the glass at about 58% its normal speed. At CERN, the OPAL detector uses some 12000 blocks of glass like this to measure particle energies.

<2> full boxes of light guides. Light guides like this are used to carry signals to the electronics for recording.

This is a calorimeter, a detector which measures the energy of particles. When in use, it is filled with liquid krypton at -152°C. Electrons and photons passing through interact with the krypton, creating a shower of charged particles which are collected on the copper ribbons. The ribbons are aligned to an accuracy of a tenth of a millimetre. The folding at each end allows them to be kept absolutely flat. Each shower of particles also creates a signal in scintillating material embedded in the support disks. These flashes of light are transmitted to electronics by the optical fibres along the side of the detector. They give the time at which the interaction occurred. The photo shows the calorimeter at NA48, a CERN experiment which is trying to understand the lack of anti-matter in the Universe today.

Before the days of electronic detectors, visual techniques were used to detect particles, using detectors such as spark chambers and bubble chambers. This plexiglass lens was used to focus the image of tracks so they could be photographed.

3 bubble chamber film rolls from the 2m bubble chamber.