Characterization, calibration and performances of the TPC of the HARP experiment at the CERN PS

Hadron production (HARP) is a high-statistics, full solid angle experiment to measure hadron production using proton and pion beams with momenta between 3 and 15 GeV/c impinging on many solid and liquid targets. Due to the experimental requirements, the time projection chamber (TPC) has been designed to provide full solid-angle acceptance and to be able to sustain a high event rate. The calibration strategy is based on the redundancy of a large spectrum of characterization methods. The specificity of the HARP TPC design, the calibration methods and results, and the present knowledge of detector performances will be reported