The precision drift chambers for the ATLAS muon spectrometer

The parameters of the stand-alone muon system have been optimised to detect , also as a stand-alone system, the Standard Model Higgs boson as well as s upersymmetric particles. The momentum resolution is typically 2-3% over mos t of the \eta\ range up to eta = 2.7. Above 200 GeV of transverse momentum (p(T)) position measurement and alignment errors begin to dominate and the resolution decreases to 10% at p(T) = 1 TcV. The bulk of the magnet volume is instrumented with Monitored Drift Tubes 3 cm in diameter, each having a spatial resolution of typically 80 mum using an Ar-CO2 mixture at 3 bar. (C ) 2000 Published by Elsevier science B.V. All rights reserved.