The ALICE experiment at LHC: physics prospects and detector design

ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment)is a dedicated detector designed to exploit the unique physics opportunities which will be offered by nucleus-nucleus collisions at the LHC. At the LHC,it will be possible to explore a radically new regime of matter, stepping up by a large factor in both volume and energy density from the nuclear interactions studied at the SpS and at RHIC. Thanks to the huge number of secondaries produced, it will be possible to measure most of the relevant variables on an event-by-event basis. The LHC energy and luminosity will allow the full spectroscopy of the Y family and of D and B mesons. ALICE is conceived as a genera -purpose detector, in which most of the hadrons, leptons and photons produced in the interaction can be measured and identified. The baseline design consists of a central ( |n| < 0 .9) detector covering the full azimuth and a forward (2 .4 < n < 4) muon arm, complemented by a forward magnetic spectrometer to study vector meson production, a multiplicity detector covering the forward rapidity region (up to |n| = 4.5) and a zero degree calorimeter. The central detector will be embedded in large magnet with a weak field of 0.2T, and will consist of a high-resolution inner tracking system, a cylindrical time projection chamber, particle identification arrays (time of flight and ring imaging cerenkov detectors), a transition radiation detector for electron identification and a single-arm electromagnetic calorimeter

Conference Summary of QNP2018

This report is the summary of the Eighth International Conference on Quarks and Nuclear Physics (QNP2018). Hadron and nuclear physics is the field to investigate high-density quantum many-body systems bound by strong interactions. It is intended to clarify matter generation of universe and properties of quark-hadron many-body systems. The QNP is an international conference which covers a wide range of hadron and nuclear physics, including quark and gluon structure of hadrons, hadron spectroscopy, hadron interactions and nuclear structure, hot and cold dense matter, and experimental facilities. First, I introduce the current status of the hadron and nuclear physics field related to this conference. Next, the organization of the conference is explained, and a brief overview of major recent developments is discussed by selecting topics from discussions at the plenary sessions. They include rapidly-developing field of gravitational waves and nuclear physics, hadron interactions and nuclear structure with strangeness, lattice QCD, hadron spectroscopy, nucleon structure, heavy-ion physics, hadrons in nuclear medium, and experimental facilities of EIC, GSI-FAIR, JLab, J-PARC, Super-KEKB, and others. Nuclear physics is at a fortunate time to push various projects at these facilities. However, we should note that the projects need to be developed together with related studies in other fields such as gravitational physics, astrophysics, condensed-matter physics, particle physics, and fundamental quantum physics.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX, 1 style file, 3 figure files, Proceedings of Eighth International Conference on Quarks and Nuclear Physics (QNP2018), November 13-17, 2018, Tsukuba, Japa

Beam test results of the irradiated Silicon Drift Detector for ALICE

The Silicon Drift Detectors will equip two of the six cylindrical layers of high precision position sensitive detectors in the ITS of the ALICE experiment at LHC. In this paper we report the beam test results of a SDD irradiated with 1 GeV electrons. The aim of this test was to verify the radiation tolerance of the device under an electron fluence equivalent to twice particle fluence expected during 10 years of ALICE operation.Comment: 6 pages,6 figures, to appear in the proceedings of International Workshop In high Multiplicity Environments (TIME'05), 3-7 October 2005, Zurich,Switzerlan

Characteristics of the ALICE Silicon Drift Detector

A Silicon Drift Detector (SDD) with an active area of 7.0 x 7.5 cm2 has been designed, produced and tested for the ALICE Inner Tracking System. The development of the SDD has been focussed on the capability of the detector to work without an external support to the integrated high voltage divider. Severalfeatures have been implemented in the design in order to increase the robustness and the long-term electrical stability of the detector. One of the prototypes has been tested in a pion beam at the CERN SPS. Preliminary results on the position resolution are given

Radiation damage of silicon strip detectors in the NA50 experiment

Abstract During operation of the multiplicity detector in the NA50 experiment the single sided AC-coupled p-on-n silicon strip detectors were exposed to charged particle fluences up to 10 14 eq n/cm 2 and ionising doses up to 20 Mrad, with a very non-uniform radiation spatial distribution. Radiation effects in the detectors observed during the '96 lead ion run as well as results of the post-run measurements are presented in this paper

Correction of Dopant Concentration Fluctuation Effects in Silicon Drift Detectors

Dopant fluctuations in silicon wafers are responsible for systematic errors in the determination of the particle crossing point in silicon drift detectors. In this paper, we report on the first large scale measurement of this effect by means of a particle beam. A significant improvement of the anodic resolution has been obtained by correcting for these systematic deviations

Analysis of radiation effects on silicon strip detectors in the NA50 experiment

Abstract During the operation of the Multiplicity Detector in the NA50 experiment the single sided AC-coupled p-on-n silicon strip detectors were exposed to charged particle fluences resulting in an equivalent 1 MeV neutron fluence up to 10 14 eq. n/cm 2 and a total ionising dose up to 20 Mrad, with a very non-uniform radiation spatial distribution. In this paper detailed analysis of radiation effects observed on the detectors during the 1996 lead ion run as well as results of measurements performed after the run are presented

INFN What Next: Ultra-relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions

This document was prepared by the community that is active in Italy, within INFN (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare), in the field of ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions. The experimental study of the phase diagram of strongly-interacting matter and of the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) deconfined state will proceed, in the next 10-15 years, along two directions: the high-energy regime at RHIC and at the LHC, and the low-energy regime at FAIR, NICA, SPS and RHIC. The Italian community is strongly involved in the present and future programme of the ALICE experiment, the upgrade of which will open, in the 2020s, a new phase of high-precision characterisation of the QGP properties at the LHC. As a complement of this main activity, there is a growing interest in a possible future experiment at the SPS, which would target the search for the onset of deconfinement using dimuon measurements. On a longer timescale, the community looks with interest at the ongoing studies and discussions on a possible fixed-target programme using the LHC ion beams and on the Future Circular Collider.Comment: 99 pages, 56 figure

Test Results of the ALICE SDD Electronic Readout Prototypes

The first prototypes of the front-end electronics of the ALICE silicon driftdetectors have been designed and tested. The integrated circuits have been designed using state of the art technologies and, for the analog parts, with radiation-tolerantdesign techniques. In this paper, the test results of the building blocks of the PASCAL chip and the first prototype of the AMBRA chip are presented. The prototypes fully respect the ALICE requirements; owingto the use of deep-submicron technologies together with radiation-tolerant layout techniques, the prototypes have shown a toleranceto a radiation dose much higher than the one foreseen for the ALICE environment.(Abstract only available, full text to follow)

The Silicon Drift Detector readout scheme for the Inner Tracking System of the ALICE Experiment

Presentation at Quark Matter '99, Torino, Italy, 10-15 May 1999The Silicon Drift Detectors (SDDs) provide, through the measurement of the drift time of the charge deposited by the particle which crosses the detector, information on the impact point and on the energy deposition. The foreseen readout scheme is based on a single chip implementation of an integrated circuit that includes low-noise amplification, fast analog strorage and analog to digital conversion, thus avoiding the problems related to the analog signal transmission. A multi-event buffer that reduces the transmission bandwidth and a data compression/zero suppression unit complete the architecture.Abstract:In this paper, the system components design is described, together with the results of the first prototypes