Ageing of materials in particle detectors due to high energy particles and waves affect all the set up of the detectors, from trajectory detection to luminosity detection. Indeed, this ageing happens in all kind of materials: semiconductors, metals and amorphous materials. So, the higher the energy of the particles and waves, the smallest the duration of experiment without errors.
and the setup for recording the data? are they radiation hard? I really doubt that the electronics are radiation hard. no material is safe from ageing.
"the setup for recording the data is outside the detector" so with what kind of material is the detector connected to the setup for recording; just an example among others
Consider liquid helium in the LHC slows ageing.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider: "Approximately 96 tonnes of superfluid helium 4 is needed to keep the magnets, made of copper-clad niobium-titanium, at their operating temperature of 1.9 K (−271.25 °C), making the LHC the largest cryogenic facility in the world at liquid helium temperature."
All the answers here are made by physicists. Are there any material scientists here?
As Alrik has explained each part of the detector has its own challenges regarding radiation hardness and also its own possibilities to mitigate it. E.g. the glass fibres which were mentioned are special rad-hard ones, ASICs can he hardened by choosing the appropriate technology and layout, the silicon used in the sensor part of the hybride silicon detectors is heavily oxygenated which deals to a certain degree with the generated traps.
If you are particularly interested in the behaviour of silicon, extensive work was done within the framework of the RD48 and RD50 collaborations. Their regular reports can be a good point to start because there is an massive list of publications in this field alone, dealing with the challenges on different levels. For example there are physicists in Hamburg who did extensive mapping of all possible defect types for a long time. For other sensor materials like diamond there are similar working groups.
But also other parts like passive discrete elements, environmental sensors, glue, etc. were qualified for their radiation hardness. Also all sub detectors, even those in the outer most regions, have to deal with these challenges. And finally sufficiently radiation hardness means that the system works within the required efficiency for a certain time. Afterwards it is disposed. E.g. the ATLAS pixel detector was just recently equipped with the IBL, a new inner most pixel layer and currently a lot of work is invested into a complete replacement around 2022, which is triggered to a huge degree by the fact that the current pixel detector will have reached its end of life dose by then.
OK André, we will see when the LHC restarts (supposed to be in March)
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