MRI Consortium: Development of the Fast Interaction Trigger Detector for the ALICE Experiment at the LHC

California Polytechnic State University Foundation, San Luis Obispo CA

Investigators

Abstract

One of the four key recommendations of the Nuclear Science Advisory Committee's 2015 Long Range Plan (LRP) included increasing investment in small-scale and mid-scale projects and initiatives that enable forefront research at universities and laboratories. The LRP also encourages education and workforce development as well as research and development into state-of-the-art tools and techniques for nuclear science. This project, the development of a particle physics detector at Chicago State University and California Polytechnic State University, will enable the transfer of knowledge from an international collaboration of world-class physicists and engineers at Europe's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to our universities. This will provide unique opportunities to train undergraduate students in electronics, detection techniques, laser technology, data analysis, and instrumentation interface. The Fast Interaction Trigger Detector (FIT) proposed here is an instrument that meets specific requirements as the Minimum Bias trigger for one of the particle detector systems (called ALICE) at the LHC: (a) The capability to discriminate beam-beam interactions with a 99% efficiency for the collisions generated by the LHC at a rate of 50 kHz for Pb-Pb collisions and a rate of 200 kHz for p-p and p-Pb collisions. (b) The capability to provide a start signal for the rest of the ALICE detectors (Level 0 trigger) with a time resolution better than 30 ps. In addition to these design parameters, the FIT detector will provide the following measurements: (a) Charged particle multiplicity (b) Interaction reaction plane (c) First measurement of the collision vertex position. FIT will also be the key detector to provide direct feedback to the LHC. It will be the first of the ALICE detectors to be turned on to perform beam tuning and monitor online luminosity. These characteristics, not available in any instrument provided by a vendor, require the development of a unique instrument at the vanguard of trigger detectors for high energy nuclear and particle physics.