SIMULATIONS OF SUPERCOLLIDER PHYSICS

The Standard Model of particle physics makes it possible to simulate c omplete events for physics signatures and their backgrounds in high-en ergy collisions. A knowledge of how the produced particles interact wi th the materials in a detector makes it possible to simulate the respo nse of any particular detector design of these events and so determine whether the detector could observe the signal. The combination of the se techniques has played an important role in the design of new detect ors, particularly those for hadron supercolliders where the high rates and small signal cross sections make the experiments difficult. The t echnique is reviewed here and illustrated using the simulation of the GEM detector proposed for the Superconducting Super Collider. Although the simulations and results described here are somewhat detector-spec ific, we believe that they can serve as a useful model for this compon ent of detector design for future hadron supercolliders.