Simulation of a KLong-Muon Detector (KLM) for the U.S. Electron Ion Collider

The Electron Ion Collider (EIC) aims to investigate the dynamics of quarks and gluons within nucleons and nuclei. The EIC design allows for two detectors, with the ePIC detector currently being the project detector and an opportunity for development of a second detector. Muon detection is of interest for some nuclear reactions, such as J/psi production. Here, we report on simulation studies of a KLM detector specifically designed to detect muons at the EIC. Acceptance and pion-muon separation power are quantities of interest. We utilized the Fun4All simulation of the COmpact DetectoR for EIC (CORE) detector, which was designed as a second EIC detector [1]. We implemented the EIC KLM design, derived from the BELLE II KLM design, consisting of scintillator and steel layers in the simulation and generated samples of muons and pions with controlled momentum and pseudorapidity at the interaction point. In this presentation, we will show the minimum momentum a muon needs to reach the KLM detector, which is located outside the magnet, as a function of field strength and pseudorapidity, as well as a comparison of the signals produced by muons and pions in the KLM. This work supports the proof-of-principle of the EIC KLM design and the results will be used in future design optimizations.

[1] CORE Proto-Collaboration, “CORE – a compact detector for the EIC,” https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6536630 (2021).