The three-spectrometer facility at the Mainz microtron MAMI

A set-up of three high-resolution magnetic spectrometers, for simplicity named A, B and C, has been built as the central facility for the precise determination of double and triple coincidence cross sections of hadron knock-out and meson production through the scattering of electrons at the Mainz microtron MAMI. The spectrometers A and C with point-to-point optics in the dispersive plane and parallel-to-point optics in the non-dispersive plane have a solid angle of 28 msr and a momentum acceptance of 20 and 25%, respectively. They each consist of a quadrupole, a sextupole and two dipole magnets, reaching maximum momenta of 735 and 550 MeV/c, respectively. The spectrometer B has a solid angle of 5.6 msr and a somewhat reduced momentum acceptance of 15%, but it reaches a maximum momentum larger than that of the MAMI electron beam (855 MeV/c). It consists of a single-clamshell dipole magnet with point-to-point optics in both planes. Each spectrometer is equipped with a position-sensitive detector system consisting of four planes of vertical drift chambers, two planes of plastic scintillators and a threshold gas Cherenkov detector. The operational experiences demonstrate that all three spectrometers exceed the specifications. Selected results of double (e, e'x) and triple (e, e'x(1)x(2)) coincidence experiments, x(1) and x(2) standing for charged hadrons, are presented, which demonstrate the performance of the whole set-up. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.