PANDA is a future experiment which will be built up at the international research center FAIR (Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research) at the GSI (Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung) in Darmstadt. The physics program may be summarized as covering low energy QCD (Quantum Chromodynamics) and hadron physics.

PANDA is designed as a fixed target experiment and will feature an antiproton beam with unprecented intensity and accuracy. In contrast to lepton beam experiments, the coherent annihilation of protons and antiprotons will allow direct formation of all desired states via the strong interaction. The location inside a storage ring (HESR) and the high event rates makes continuous operation of all systems necessary.

As central tracking detector (main contribution to momentum measurement) a continuously running, GEM-based Time Projection Chamber (TPC) is foreseen, which is being developed at E18. The TPC development includes:

• Detector hardware
• Computer simulations of all components and effects
• Simultaneous development of pattern recognition and tracking algorithms

Simulations of the PANDA TPC

The PANDA detector including all subsystems is modeled inside an extensive C++ simulation framework based on ROOT. For the TPC, all aspects of detector operation including detector response, electronics and track reconstruction are included in the software and are constantly improved.

First measurements with the Test Chamber