Characterisation of different stages of hadronic showers using the CALICE Si-W ECAL physics prototype

A detailed investigation of hadronic interactions is performed using π−-mesons with energies in the range 2–10 GeV incident on a high granularity silicon–tungsten electromagnetic calorimeter. The data were recorded at FNAL in 2008. The region in which the π−-mesons interact with the detector material and the produced secondary particles are characterised using a novel track-finding algorithm that reconstructs tracks within hadronic showers in a calorimeter in the absence of a magnetic field. The principle of carrying out detector monitoring and calibration using secondary tracks is also demonstrated.