High-speed electronics of the T0 detector for the ALICE experiment (CERN)

The design and special features of the main units of high-speed electronics for the trigger subsystem of the T0 detector of the ALICE experiment are considered. Its characteristic time resolution is 50 ps. The dead time does not exceed 25 ns.     

Simulations of the PHOS detector in the ALICE experiment at CERN

In 2005 the ALICE experiment will start at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. It will investigate hot and dense strongly interacting matter formed in heavy ion collisions. The photon spectrometer of the ALICE detector will be designed to identify direct photons. To optimize the detector, simulations will be carried out.     

Physics with the ALICE experiment

ALICE experiment at LHC collects data in pp collisions at 1497-1 = 0.9, 2.76, and 7 TeV and in PbPb collisions at 2.76 TeV. Highlights of the detector performance and an overview of experimental results measured with ALICE in pp and AA collisions are presented in this paper. Physics with protonproton collisions is focused on hadron spectroscopy at low and moderate p _t . Measurements with lead-lead collisions are shown in comparison with those in pp collisions, and the properties of hot quark matter are discussed.     

Status of the ALICE experiment

The European Physical Journal C - A status of the ALICE experiment is given. Details on the advancement of the major projects, together with results of recent performance tests are presented. PACS:...     

The Time Of Flight (TOF) system of the ALICE experiment

The European Physical Journal C - The double-stack Multigap Resistive Plate Chamber (MRPC) is the detector chosen for the large Time-Of-Flight system of the ALICE experiment at CERN LHC. The TOF...     

Heavy ions with the Large Hadron Collider and the ALICE detector

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) under construction at CERN is also planned as a heavy ion collider with lead ions colliding at an energy of 2.7+2.7 ATeV. This corresponds to collisions of matter with cosmic rays of the utmost energies observed so far promising the study of new and exciting aspects of physics. Minor improvements of the newly commissioned lead ion source at the CERN SPS are necessary in order to provide a luminosity of L=2×10²⁷ cm^?2s^?1. The detector ALICE has been chosen as the third detector for the LHC and will be dedicated to the physics of these nuclear collisions and also to the large cross section physics in p+p collisions.     

Cosmic ray test for a T0 detector

The endcap of time-of-flight (ETOF) detector in BES (Beijing Spectrometer) III is planned to be upgraded by using multi-gap resistive plate chambers (MRPCs) and the designed time resolution of the MRPCs is around 50 ps. Thus a time-zero (T0) detector needs to be built to offer a high quality reference time for the MRPCs beam test. So a T0 detector is built using plastic scintillator tiles (BC420) to couple with four fast phototubes (PMTs, Hamamatsu H6533). The timing properties of the detector is studied by using a cosmic ray test and factors related to the time resolution, such as plastic scintillator size, readout mode and angle effects, are discussed. T0 detector timing resolutions of ～41-62 ps are achieved, which means that the T0 detector can be used in the MRPC beam test.     

Heavy flavour capabilities of the ALICE transition radiation detector

The ALICE Transition Radiation Detector (TRD) enhances the detection sensitivity of heavy-flavour production of the ALICE experiment at the LHC by providing electron identification above and fast trigger capabilities above . The combined particle identification from the Inner Tracking System (ITS), the Time Projection Chamber (TPC) and the Transition Radiation Detector enables measurements of D-mesons and B-mesons and, potentially, the Λ_b, assuming the reconstruction of the .     

用于磁压剪技术的10 T准静态磁场发生器

基于理论分析和数值模拟,建立了一种用于磁驱动压剪加载中产生纯剪切力的准静态磁场发生器,由4台0.5 mF/15 kV的储能电容器并联而成,通过15 kV/30 kA的半导体硅堆开关,向一对磁体线圈放电,进行模拟分析和实验测试。装置在充电9 kV时,在样品区域获得了上升时间1.34 ms的10 T准静态磁场。测试和分析结果表明在半径7 mm区域内磁场分布不均匀性小于2%,满足磁压剪实验要求。     

Investigations of the new generation pixel detectors for ALICE experiment at LHC

We present the results from testing Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors of the detector ALPIDE (ALICE Pixel Detector). The purpose of these tests was to measure the pixel threshold and noise distributions in each of the four sectors of the detector, as well as the analysis of the hit maps produced by different radioactive sources.     

Physics perspectives of the ALICE experiment at the large hadron collider

The large hadron collider (LHC) under construction at CERN will deliver ion beams up to centre of mass energies of the order of 5.5 TeV per nucleon, in case of lead. If compared to the available facilities for the study of nucleus-nucleus collisions (SpS and RHIC), this represents a huge step forward in terms of both volume and energy density that can be attained in nuclear interactions. ALICE (a large ion collider experiment) is the only detector specifically designed for the physics of nuclear collisions at LHC, even though it can also study high cross-section processes occurring in proton-proton collisions. The main goal of the experiment is to observe and study the phase transition from hadronic matter to deconfined partonic matter (quark gluon plasma —QGP). ALICE is conceived as a general-purpose detector and will address most of the phenomena related to the QGP formation at LHC energies: for this purpose, a large fraction of the hadrons, leptons and photons produced in each interaction will be measured and identified.     

Primary vertex in the ALICE experiment in absence of the event reconstruction

ALICE is a general-purpose apparatus for the study of ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions at the Large Hadron Collider of the CERN. The study of such reactions demands the determination of the primary vertex in three dimensions with good resolution. We have developed an algorithm for finding the vertex position even in absence of the event reconstruction. The performances of such an algorithm have been studied as a function of the vertex position, particle multiplicity and magnetic field.     

Simulation study on light vector meson decays to electron-positron pairs with the ALICE experiment

Simulation study on ω, ϕ, ρ decays to e ⁻ e ⁺ pairs in the ALICE detector for Pb-Pb collisions at LHC energy was performed. The possibility of selecting resonance signals over the combinatorial backgrounds is demonstrated using the realistic simulation tracking and particle identification algorithms of the ALICE offline framework (AliRoot). Results for J/ψ are presented also for comparison.     

红外探测器模拟器中多通道数模转换输出不一致性校正

针对多通道数模转换电路输出不一致性问题,将两点非均匀性校正算法引入到不一致性问题中,提出了一种不一致性两点校正模型。通过分析红外探测器模拟器输出信号的样本数据,获得不一致性校正因子,并在现场可编程门阵列核心处理器中实现了该不一致性校正模型。利用红外探测器模拟器模拟320×256中波红外制冷探测器的输出信号,获得不一致性校正前后的图像。通过比较分析表明:校正前图像列平均灰度最大起伏量为15,校正后为5,相对改善了约66.7%。     

The digital trigger system for the RED-100 detector

The system for forming a trigger for the liquid xenon detector RED-100 is developed. The trigger can be generated for all types of events that the detector needs for calibration and data acquisition, including the events with a single electron of ionization. In the system, a mechanism of event detection is implemented according to which the timestamp and event type are assigned to each event. The trigger system is required in the systems searching for rare events to select and keep only the necessary information from the ADC array. The specifications and implementation of the trigger unit which provides a high efficiency of response even to low-energy events are considered.     

Forward vertex detector upgrade for the PHENIX experiment at RHIC

A new forward vertex detector is under construction for the PHENIX experiment and will be installed in 2011. The device consists of two sets of four disks of silicon mini-strips and matches the acceptance of the existing muon detectors, and will provide precise vertex measurement for charged tracks. The forward vertex detector is designed to greatly enhance the heavy-flavor physics capabilities on PHENIX. The structure of the proposed device and its performance from Monte Carlo studies are presented.     

A hadron blind detector for the PHENIX experiment at RHIC

A hadron blind detector (HBD) is to be installed in the PHENIX experiment for Run7, starting in fall 2006. The HBD is a threshold Čerenkov detector designed to measure electrons in a field free region surrounding the collision vertex. The HBD’s primary purpose is to tag background electrons originating from photon conversion and Dalitz decays. These background electrons can subsequently be excluded from a dilepton analysis, thereby reducing the combinatorial background by up to a factor of 100. The detector is realized by a proximity-focus windowless Čerenkov detector operating with pure CF₄ and read out by a reflective photocathode consisting of a stack of gas electron multipliers (GEM), the first of which is coated with 300 nm of CsI. The avalanche charge from the GEM stack is collected on a PCB with pads having similar size to the Čerenkov blob. Dalitz and photon conversions are tagged by having twice the amplitude of a single blob. An excellent Quantum Efficiency of the photocathode is thus crucial to the success of the device. Outstanding results have been accomplished using a vacuum evaporation facility on loan from INFN Rome. We will give an overview of the experimental methods to identify blobs and techniques developed for photocathode production.     

New CHOD detector for the NA62 experiment at CERN

The New CHOD is a scintillation hodoscope with a pad structure featuring a total of 148 counters. The signal from each pad is read out using wavelength-shifting fibers and two or four SensL SiPMs with a sensitive area of 3 × 3 mm². This photodetector has 4774 pixels 35 × 35 μm² in size. The key parameters (photon detection efficiency, dark current, crosstalk, and gain) were measured for 500 SiPMs.