Use of a cathode read-out multiwire proportional chamber for separation of electronagnetic and hadronic showers

Data are presented for separation of showers produced by 1–4 GeV/c incident electrons and pions after the traversal of ∼ 1 radiation length of aluminium. The use of a cathode strip read-out multiwire proportional chamber and a scintillation counter is shown to improve the rejection obtained with lead-glass counters, giving as much as a factor of 80 at 50% detection efficiency. The parameters of the chamber are: cathode plane to plane gap 1.2 cm, wire spacing 0.2 cm, width of the cathode strips 1 cm, interstrip 0.2 cm, sensitive area of the chamber 20×20 cm2.