Time-of-flight measurement in the DZero Central Fiber Tracker

Abstract

We continue evaluation of the new electronics developed for the Central Fiber Tracker and Preshower detectors. With the custom TriP chip and MCM II we have measured the position of the hits along the fiber by comparing the time of arrival of the photons at the VLPC with the expected timing relative to the beam. The measured rms resolution at the center of the fibers is 46cm for hits with more than 8 photo-electrons and is dominated by the statistics of photon arrival time. The corresponding resolution near the ends of the fibers (where more photoelectrons are collected) is calculated to be of order 27cm. With a second submission of the TriP chip to add the time-of-flight measuring capability we will effectively double the number of channels in the central fiber tracker. This capability will increase the maximum luminosity at which D0 can do tracking from {approx} 100 {center_dot} 10{sup 30}cm{sup -2}s{sup -1} to {approx} 200 {center_dot} 10{sup 30} cm{sup -2}s{sup -1} (at a bench mark tracking specification). The cost of replacing the electronics is of order $500K and the necessary lead time is 1.5 years.