Study of the dE/dx resolution of a GEM Readout Chamber prototype for the upgrade of the ALICE TPC

Andreas Mathis

doi:10.1051/epjconf/201817401002

Abstract

The ALICE Collaboration is planning a major upgrade of its central barrel detectors to be able to cope with the increased LHC luminosity beyond 2020. For the TPC, this implies a replacement of the currently used gated MWPCs (Multi-Wire Proportional Chamber) by GEM (Gas Electron Multiplier) based readout chambers. In order to prove, that the present particle identification capabilities via measurement of the specific energy loss are retained after the upgrade, a prototype of the ALICE IROC (Inner Readout Chamber) has been evaluated in a test beam campaign at the CERN PS. The dE/dx resolution of the prototype has been proven to be fully compatible with the current MWPCs.

Highlights

ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) [1] is a heavyion experiment designed to study the physics of the highdensity, high-temperature phase of strongly interacting matter, and in particular the properties of the Quark–Gluon Plasma (QGP) in proton–proton, proton–nucleus and nucleus–nucleus collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC)
The ALICE Time Projection Chamber [3] is the main device for charged-particle tracking, momentum measurement and particle identification (PID) in the central barrel of the ALICE experiment
The IROC GEM prototype is equipped with 10 EUDET front-end cards (FEC), which were borrowed from the LCTPC (Linear Collider TPC) collaboration

Summary

Introduction

ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) [1] is a heavyion experiment designed to study the physics of the highdensity, high-temperature phase of strongly interacting matter, and in particular the properties of the Quark–Gluon Plasma (QGP) in proton–proton, proton–nucleus and nucleus–nucleus collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The second generation of LHC heavy-ion studies beyond 2020 (in LHC RUN3 after the so called Long Shutdown 2) will be enabled by a significant increase of the LHC instant luminosity up to 6 × 1027 cm−2s−1, allowing for the study of rare probes and their coupling to the medium [2]. In order to fully exploit this increased luminosity, a continuous readout of the ALICE detector at an interaction rate of 50 kHz is foreseen

ALICE TPC - status and perspectives

IROC prototype

Experimental setup

Readout

Summary and outlook