The Roman pot is the name of a technique (and of the relevant device) used in accelerator physics. Named after its implementation by the CERN-Rome collaboration in the early 1970s,[1][2] it is an important tool to measure the total cross section of two particle beams in a collider.[3] They are called pots because the detectors are housed in cylindrical vessels. The first generation of Roman pots was purpose-built by the CERN Central Workshops and used in the measurement of the total cross-section of proton-proton inter-actions in the ISR.[4][5][6]
Roman pots are located as close to the beamline as possible, to capture the accelerated particles which scatter by very small angles.
^Holzer, B. J.; Goddard, B.; Herr, Werner; Muratori, Bruno; Rivkin, L.; Biagini, M. E.; Jowett, J. M.; Hanke, K.; Fischer, W. (2020). "Design and Principles of Synchrotrons and Circular Colliders". In Myers, Stephen; Schopper, Herwig (eds.). Particle Physics Reference Library. Cham: Springer Open. pp. 205–294. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-34245-6_6. ISBN978-3-030-34245-6.