Fractal dimension of particle showers measured in a highly granular calorimeter.

We explore the fractal nature of particle showers using Monte Carlo simulation. We define the fractal dimension of showers measured in a high granularity calorimeter designed for a future lepton collider. The shower fractal dimension reveals detailed information of the spatial configuration of the shower. It is found to be characteristic of the type of interaction and highly sensitive to the nature of the incident particle. Using the shower fractal dimension, we demonstrate a particle identification algorithm that can efficiently separate electromagnetic showers, hadronic showers, and nonshowering tracks. We also find a logarithmic dependence of the shower fractal dimension on the particle energy.