Quartz Fibers and the Prospects for Hadron Calorimetry at the 1% Resolution Level1

In previous talks at this conference, we have heard a lot about quartz fiber calorimeters. These detectors have many interesting properties indeed. However, excellent energy resolution does not seem to be one of those properties. Yet, I will try to convince you that the application of quartz fibers may bring substantial improvements to a variety of aspects of hadron calorimetry, including measurement of the energy of hadron showers with unprecedented accuracy. Before elaborating on this point, I will first briefly review the various factors contributing to and limiting the performance of calorimeters.