Performance of the Prototype of the Charged-Particle Veto System of the PADME Experiment

The PADME experiment will search for the e
⁺
e
^-
→ γ A' process in a positron-on-target experiment, assuming a decay of the A' into invisible particles of the hidden sector. The 550-MeV positron beam of the DAΦNE beamtest facility (BTF), at Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, will be used. The suppression of the background, due to bremsstrahlung emission from the beam positrons, requires highly efficient charged-particle detectors with optimized geometry. A fine-grained plastic scintillator veto composed of three stations operating in vacuum is proposed. Two stations, placed inside a dipole magnet with 0.6-T magnetic field, will also provide momentum measurement at the percent level. Different prototypes for the design of the detector elements, the photosensor, and the front-end electronics were studied with single electron beam at the DAΦNE BTF to choose the optimal technologies and construction solutions. PADME is currently under construction, and it is planned to begin data collection in 2018. The design of the charged-particle vetoes and the test beam performance of the prototypes are reviewed.