Heidelberg 2015 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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HK: Fachverband Physik der Hadronen und Kerne

HK 13: Instrumentation 5

HK 13.1: Gruppenbericht

Montag, 23. März 2015, 17:00–17:30, M/HS2

Status of the ALICE TPC upgrade for high-rate operation — •Piotr Gasik for the ALICE collaboration — TU München, Physik Department E12, Excellence Cluster "Universe", D-85748, Garching, Germany

A large Time Projection Chamber (TPC) is the main device for tracking and charged particle identification in the ALICE experiment at the CERN LHC. After the second long shutdown in 2018/2019, the LHC will deliver Pb beams colliding at an interaction rate of about 50 kHz, which is about a factor of 100 above the present readout rate of the TPC. This will result in a significant improvement on the sensitivity of rare probes that are considered key observables to characterise the hot and dense QCD matter created in such collisions. In order to make full use of this luminosity, a major upgrade of the TPC is required. It is foreseen to replace the existing MWPC-based readout chambers by Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) detectors to overcome the rate limitations imposed by the present gated readout scheme.

An extensive R&D program has been launched to reach the challenging requirements of the upcoming upgrade of the detector. In this presentation the most recent results will be discussed concerning ion backflow suppression, gain stability, energy and dE/dx resolution and stability against discharges. The status of the upgrade of the online calibration and data reduction system, which includes advanced techniques for online corrections of space-charge distortions, as well as the development of a new readout electronics will be reported.