NOVEL APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR PERFORMING REMOTELY CONTROLLED PARTICLE-SOLID INTERACTION EXPERIMENTS AT CERN

Recent atomic physics studies involving ultrarelativistic Ph ions requ ired solid target positioners, scintillators, and a sophisticated data acquisition and control system placed in a remote location at the CER N Super Proton Synchrotron near Geneva, Switzerland. The apparatus, in stalled in a high-radiation zone underground, had to (i) function for months, (ii) automatically respond to failures such as power outages a nd particle-induced computer upsets, and (iii) communicate with the ou tside world via a telephone line, The heart of the apparatus developed was an Apple Macintosh-based CAMAC system that answered the telephone and interpreted and executed remote control commands that (i) sensed and set targets, (ii) controlled voltages and discriminator levels for scintillators, (iii) modified data acquisition hardware logic, (iv) r eported control information, and (v) automatically synchronized data a cquisition to the CERN spill cycle via a modem signal and transmitted experimental data to a remote computer. No problems were experienced u sing intercontinental telephone connections at 1200 baud. Our successf ul ''virtual laboratory'' approach that uses off-the-shelf electronics is generally adaptable to more conventional bench-type experiments.