A large ungated TPC with GEM amplification

A Time Projection Chamber (TPC) is an ideal device for the detection of charged particle tracks in a large volume covering a solid angle of almost . The high density of hits on a given particle track facilitates the task of pattern recognition in a high-occupancy environment and in addition provides particle identification by measuring the specific energy loss for each track. For these reasons, TPCs with Multiwire Proportional Chamber (MWPC) amplification have been and are widely used in experiments recording heavy-ion collisions. A significant drawback, however, is the large dead time of the order of 1 ms per event generated by the use of a gating grid, which is mandatory to prevent ions created in the amplification region from drifting back into the drift volume, where they would severely distort the drift path of subsequent tracks. For experiments with higher event rates this concept of a conventional TPC operating with a triggered gating grid can therefore not be applied without a significant loss of data. A continuous readout of the signals is the more appropriate way of operation. This, however, constitutes a change of paradigm with considerable challenges to be met concerning the amplification region, the design and bandwidth of the readout electronics, and the data handling. A mandatory prerequisite for such an operation is a sufficiently good suppression of the ion backflow from the avalanche region, which otherwise limits the tracking and particle identification capabilities of such a detector. Gas Electron Multipliers (GEM) are a promising candidate to combine excellent spatial resolution with an intrinsic suppression of ions. In this paper we describe the design, construction and the commissioning of a large TPC with GEM amplification and without gating grid (GEM-TPC). The design requirements have driven innovations in the construction of a light-weight field-cage, a supporting media flange, the GEM amplification and the readout system, which are presented in this paper. We further describe the support infrastructure such as gas, cooling and slow control. Finally, we report on the operation of the GEM-TPC in the FOPI experiment, and describe the calibration procedures which are applied to achieve the design performance of the device.Peer reviewe

Production of inclusive ϒ(1S) and ϒ(2S) in p–Pb collisions at √sNN=5.02 TeV

We report on the production of inclusive ϒ(1S) and ϒ(2S) in p–Pb collisions at sNN=5.02 TeV at the LHC. The measurement is performed with the ALICE detector at backward (−4.46<ycms<−2.96) and forward (2.03<ycms<3.53) rapidity down to zero transverse momentum. The production cross sections of the ϒ(1S) and ϒ(2S) are presented, as well as the nuclear modification factor and the ratio of the forward to backward yields of ϒ(1S). A suppression of the inclusive ϒ(1S) yield in p–Pb collisions with respect to the yield from pp collisions scaled by the number of binary nucleon–nucleon collisions is observed at forward rapidity but not at backward rapidity. The results are compared to theoretical model calculations including nuclear shadowing or partonic energy loss effects. © 2014 The Author

Freeze-out radii extracted from three-pion cumulants in pp, p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions at the LHC

In high-energy collisions, the spatio-temporal size of the particle production region can be measured using the Bose-Einstein correlations of identical bosons at low relative momentum. The source radii are typically extracted using two-pion correlations, and characterize the system at the last stage of interaction, called kinetic freeze-out. In low-multiplicity collisions, unlike in high-multiplicity collisions, two-pion correlations are substantially altered by background correlations, e.g. mini-jets. Such correlations can be suppressed using three-pion cumulant correlations. We present the first measurements of the size of the system at freeze-out extracted from three-pion cumulant correlations in pp, p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions at the LHC with ALICE. At similar multiplicity, the invariant radii extracted in p-Pb collisions are found to be 5-15% larger than those in pp, while those in Pb-Pb are 35-55% larger than those in p-Pb. Our measurements disfavor models which incorporate substantially stronger collective expansion in p-Pb as compared to pp collisions at similar multiplicity. © 2014 The Authors

Beauty production in pp collisions at √s=2.76 TeV measured via semi-electronic decays

The ALICE collaboration at the LHC reports measurement of the inclusive production cross section of electrons from semi-leptonic decays of beauty hadrons with rapidity |y|<0.8 and transverse momentum 1<pT<10 GeV/c, in pp collisions at s=2.76 TeV. Electrons not originating from semi-electronic decay of beauty hadrons are suppressed using the impact parameter of the corresponding tracks. The production cross section of beauty decay electrons is compared to the result obtained with an alternative method which uses the distribution of the azimuthal angle between heavy-flavour decay electrons and charged hadrons. Perturbative QCD predictions agree with the measured cross section within the experimental and theoretical uncertainties. The integrated visible cross section, σb→e=3.47±0.40(stat)−1.33 +1.12(sys)±0.07(norm) μb, was extrapolated to full phase space using Fixed Order plus Next-to-Leading Log (FONLL) calculations to obtain the total bb¯ production cross section, σbb¯=130±15.1(stat)−49.8 +42.1(sys)−3.1 +3.4(extr)±2.5(norm)±4.4(BR) μb. © 201

Measurement of visible cross sections in proton-lead collisions at √sNN = 5.02 TeV in van der Meer scans with the ALICE detector

In 2013, the Large Hadron Collider provided proton-lead and lead-proton collisions at the center-of-mass energy per nucleon pair s NN=5.02 TeV . Van der Meer scans were performed for both configurations of colliding beams, and the cross section was measured for two reference processes, based on particle detection by the T0 and V0 detectors, with pseudo-rapidity coverage 4.6 < η < 4.9, -3.3 < η < -3.0 and 2.8 < η < 5.1, -3.7 < η < -1.7, respectively. Given the asymmetric detector acceptance, the cross section was measured separately for the two configurations. The measured visible cross sections are used to calculate the integrated luminosity of the proton-lead and lead-proton data samples, and to indirectly measure the cross section for a third, configuration-independent, reference process, based on neutron detection by the Zero Degree Calorimeters. © CERN 2014 for the benefit of the Alice collaboration