COMPASS experiment

COMPASS experiment logo

The NA58 experiment, or COMPASS (Common Muon and Proton Apparatus for Structure and Spectroscopy) is a fixed-target particle physics experiment at the Super Proton Synchrotron, a particle accelerator at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). It is a two-level magnetic spectrometer with calorimeters in both levels and particle identification in the first level.

There are several research projects underway at COMPASS:

• understanding the contribution of the gluons to the spin of the proton and other nuclei,
• production and investigation of exotic mesons,
• production and investigation of charmed mesons.

About 240 physicists from 11 countries and 28 institutions work in COMPASS. Until the start of the LHC experiments, COMPASS was the largest experiment at CERN taking data. It has also been a pioneer in adopting new detector and readout technologies such as Micromega and GEM detectors.

See also

• List of Super Proton Synchrotron experiments

External links

• Collaboration Web site.
• COMPASS experimental setup.
• "COMPASS homes in on the nucleon spin", The CERN Courier, 25 July 2006 (accessed 26 June 2008).