The Fermilab E771 spectrometer - A large aperture spectrometer to study charm and beauty states as detected by decays into muons

This paper describes the final incarnation of the Fermilab High Intensity Lab spectrometer which operated for ten years in the Proton West Area of Fermilab in the execution of two experiments (E537 and E705) which studied hadroproduction of high mass dimuon pairs. The version of the spectrometer used in E771 differed from earlier versions of the spectrometer by the addition of a silicon microstrip detector, pad chambers and resistive plate counters. These additions were implemented to give the spectrometer the capability of detection of secondary decay vertices from B --> mu or B --> J/psi --> mu mu decays. As discussed, the spectrometer in a short data taking period was able to address many kinds of physics, other than beauty decays.