High-precision spectroscopy with the ATLAS muon system

The ATLAS muon spectrometer will measure muon tracks along a spectrometer a rm of up to 15 m length, embedded in a magnetic field of similar to 0.5 T. The precision tracking devices in the muon system will be high-pressure dri ft tubes (MDTs). To achieve a momentum resolution of similar to 10% for muo ns with a transverse momentum of p(T) = 1 TeV/c, the systematic error to th e space-time relationship has to be smaller than delta (r.m.s.) < 70 <mu>m. Contributions to a systematic error delta (r.m.s.) and its impact on the m uon-momentum resolution are discussed. LHC physics require excellent knowle dge of the absolute momentum scale. We show a calibration method which will achieve an accuracy at the 10(-4) level, (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B,V. Al l rights reserved.