ACTAR TPC: a high-luminosity detection system for low-intensity beams

Abstract:  The Active Target and Time Projection Chamber (ACTAR TPC) is an ambitious European project whose goal is to design and construct a high-luminosity gas-filled detector to study reactions and decays of rare isotopes. The core detection system will consist of one (or possibly several) micro-pattern gaseous detectors (MPGDs) coupled to a highly pixelated pad plane with a pitch of only 2x2 mm2. Both the channel density (25 channels/cm2) and total number of electronics channels (16384) are the highest that have been achieved by any nuclear physics detector to date. In this presentation I will provide an overview of the project, discuss the principal challenges associated with constructing such a device and present the day one physics programs for ACTAR TPC when it goes online at the GANIL laboratory in France in 2018.