A study of Double Pomeron Exchange in ALICE

The non-Abelian nature of QCD suggests that particles that have a gluon constituent, such as glueballs or hybrids, should exist. Experiments WA76, WA91 and WA102 have performed a dedicated search for these states in central production using the CERN Omega Spectrometer. New results from central production show that there is a kinematical filter which can select out glueball candidates from known qqbar states. A further study of this at high energies is essential in order to get information on the M(X0) > 2 GeV region. This paper describes how this could be done using the the ALICE detector at the LHC.Comment: 17 pages, Latex, 7 Figure

A Prototype Fast Multiplicity Discriminator for ALICE L0 Trigger

The design details and test results of a prototype Multiplicity Discriminator (MD) for the ALICE L0 Trigger electronics are presented. The MD design is aimed at the earliest trigger decision founded on a fast multiplicity signal cut, in both options for the ALICE centrality detector: Micro Channel Plates or Cherenkov counters. The MD accepts detector signals with an amplitude range of plus-minus 2.5 V, base duration of 1.8 ns and rise time of 300-400 ps. The digitally controlled threshold settings give an accuracy better than 0.4% at the maximum amplitude of the accepted pulses. The MD internal latency of 15 ns allows for a decision every LHC bunch crossing period, even for the 40 MHz of p-p collisions

Measurement of D-meson production at mid-rapidity in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV

The production cross sections for prompt charmed mesons D0, D+, D∗+ and D+s were measured at mid-rapidity in proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy √s=7 TeV with the ALICE detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). D mesons were reconstructed from their decays D0→K−π+, D+→K−π+π+, D∗+→D0π+, D+s→ϕπ+→K−K+π+, and their charge conjugates.With respect to previous measurements in the same rapidity region, the coverage in transverse momentum (pT) is extended and the uncertainties are reduced by a factor of about two. The accuracy on the estimated total ccbar production cross section is likewise improved. The measured pT-differential cross sections are compared with the results of three perturbative QCD calculations.<br/

Recent developments on the ALICE central Trigger processor

The ALI CE Central Trigger Processor has been constructed and tested, and will shortly be installed in the experimental area. In this review, we introduce the new developments in hardware and software, present a measurement of the minimum propagation time, and illustrate various trigger applications