A CHERENKOV COUNTER DESIGNED AS A MUON TRIGGER FOR THE SDC DETECTOR

A test of a gas Cherenkov counter was performed at Fermilab in the High Energy Muon Lab in order to understand its performance as a trigger counter for muons above a given momentum. This counter was built so that it could rotate relative to the beam direction to simulate the bending of muon tracks in the toroidal magnet of the Solenoidal Detector Collaboration (SDC) being designed for use at the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC). The SDC Cherenkov counter is so designed that a high momentum muon would emit Cherenkov light that is focussed on the face of a photomultiplier tube while a low momentum muon in the forward element of the SDC detector is bent to large enough angles so that the light is focussed away from the photomuliplier tube. We present the observed changes in pulse height as the counter is rotated and the simulated resultant trigger efficiency for a given photomultiplier output pulse.