Comparison of Iron and Tungsten Absorber Structures for an Analog Hadron Calorimeter

Future electron-positron-collider experiments will require unprecedented jet-energy resolution to complete their physics programs. This can only be achieved with novel approaches to calorimetry. One of these novel approaches is the Particle Flow Algorithm, which uses the best suited sub-detector to measure the energy of the particles produced by the electron-positron collision. The CALICE Collaboration evaluates different read-out technologies for Particle Flow Calorimeters. This thesis describes the comparison of two different absorber materials, iron and tungsten, for the CALICE Analog Hadron Calorimeter. It is described how testbeam data, that has been recorded in the range from 2 GeV to 10 GeV with the Analog Hadron Calorimeter is calibrated, and how samples are selected containing showers from just one particle type. The data is then compared to simulations and the remaining disagreement between data and simulation is discussed. The validated simulations are then used to decompose the showers into different fractions. These fractions are compared for the two absorber materials to understand the impact of the absorber material choice on the calorimeter performance.