Status of the TOTEM experiment at LHC

Abstract

The TOTEM experiment is dedicated to the measurement of the total proton–proton cross-section with the luminosity-independent method and the study of elastic and diffractive scattering processes. Two tracking telescopes, T1 and T2, integrated in the CMS detector, cover the pseudo-rapidity region between 3.1 and 6.5 on both sides of the interaction point IP5. The Roman Pot (RP) stations are located at distances of ±147m and ±220m with respect to the interaction point to measure the very forward scattered protons at very small angles. During the LHC technical stop in winter 2010/2011, the TOTEM experiment was completed with the installation of the T1 telescope and the RP stations at ±147m. In 2011, the LHC machine provided special optics with the large ß⁎=90m, allowing TOTEM to measure the elastic scattering differential cross-section, down to the four-momentum transfer squared |t|=2×10−2GeV2. Using the optical theorem and extrapolation of the differential cross-section to t=0 (optical point), the total p–p cross-section at the LHC energy of s=7TeV could be computed for the first time. Furthermore we measured with standard LHC beam optics and the energy of s=7TeV the forward charged particle pseudorapidity density dn/dη in the range of 5.3<|η|<6.4. The status of the experiment, the performance of the detectors with emphasis on the RPs are described and the first physics results are presented.