Measurement of stopping beam distributions in the PIBETA detector

Abstract Precise calculation of the geometrical acceptance of a large solid angle detector with an integrated stopping target relies on precise knowledge of the beam geometry. We describe four alternative methods that we used to measure the beam stopping distributions in the PIBETA detector active target: (i) light response of segmented target elements to incident beam particles, (ii) back-tracking of charged particles from π + and μ + decays using multi-wire proportional chambers, (iii) volume distribution of the Dalitz decay ( π 0 → γ e + e - ) event vertices, and (iv) the opening angle distribution of two π 0 photons originating from the beta decay of π + at rest. We demonstrate consistent results obtained by these four independent approaches and show how particular beam stopping distributions affect the detector's geometrical acceptance.