Abstract
While groundbreaking measurements on the properties of strongly interacting matter in p+p, p+Aand A+A collisions at the LHC are being performed, it is clear that many important questions in heavy-ion physics will remain unanswered in this first phase of beam times up to 2017. The ALICE collaboration is setting up a program of detector upgrades to be installed in the LHC shutdown planned for 2017/18, to address the new scientific challenges. We will discuss examples of the scientific frontiers and upgrade projects understudy for the ALICE experiment.
Highlights
In the first years of operation ALICE has demonstrated its excellent capabilities to measure high-energy nuclear collisions at the LHC, delivering exciting results on elliptic flow, which appears to be even larger than at RHIC [1], strong quenching of high momentum hadrons including first measurements using identified open charm mesons [2] and intriguing results on the centrality dependence of charmonium production [3], to just name a few examples
ALICE is preparing an upgrade program that builds on the existing strengths of the experimental setup, such as excellent tracking performance, in particular at low momenta, efficient secondary vertex reconstruction, very low material budget, and excellent particle identification
The upgraded experimental setup will have enhanced rate capabilities to allow an inspection of Pb-Pb collisions at an interaction rate of 50 kHz
Summary
In the first years of operation ALICE has demonstrated its excellent capabilities to measure high-energy nuclear collisions at the LHC, delivering exciting results on elliptic flow, which appears to be even larger than at RHIC [1], strong quenching of high momentum hadrons including first measurements using identified open charm mesons [2] and intriguing results on the centrality dependence of charmonium production [3], to just name a few examples. More information on the improvements and further details on the ALICE upgrade can be found in [4] Another new detector, the Muon Forward Tracker, is being proposed to possibly further enhance the measurement capabilities for the signals mentioned above via the improved forward measurement of quarkonia and lowmass dimuons, as well as heavy-flavour muons. The Muon Forward Tracker, is being proposed to possibly further enhance the measurement capabilities for the signals mentioned above via the improved forward measurement of quarkonia and lowmass dimuons, as well as heavy-flavour muons The larger beam energy of the LHC will allow us to enter a new physics regime with access to much smaller values of x and a larger phase space for saturation due to the expected larger saturation scale
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