Physics:Charge division

The charge division method is used in wire chambers to measure the coordinate along the sense wire. When an avalanche occurs on a resistive sense wire of length L at a distance x < L/2 from the the right-end side, then the left-end-side is at L-x, and the signal sees less resistance towards the right than to the left: a higher signal will arrive on the right-end side. The signal ratio is given by

where is the input impedance of the readout circuit divided by the wire resistance. For File:Hepb img87.gif this results in the simplistic non-attenuated formula

Relevant studies for wire chambers can be found in Fanet91, Biagi86, Dulinski83, and Barbarino79.

Charge division in silicon strip detectors is employed not along the strips, but by grouping strips for reasons of economy (of space and electronics). As suggested in England81, only every nth strip is connected to electronics, and interstrip capacitors couple the remaining strips. Although this gives less information on , and inferior two-track resolution Klanner85, the improvement in single track resolution can be substantial Dabrowski96.