Reconstruction of Cosmic and Beam-Halo Muons with the CMS Detector

Abstract

The powerful muon and tracker systems of the CMS detector together with dedicated reconstruction software allow precise and efficient measurement of muon tracks originating from proton-proton collisions. The standard muon reconstruction algorithms, however, are inadequate to deal with muons that do not originate from collisions. We present the design, implementation, and performance of a dedicated cosmic muon track reconstruction algorithm, which features pattern recognition optimized for muons that are not coming from the interaction point, i.e. cosmic muons and beam-halo muons. To evaluate the performance of the new algorithm, data taken during Cosmic Challenge phases I and II as well as beam-halo muons recorded during the first LHC beam operation were studied. In addition, a variety of more general topologies of cosmic muons and beam-halo muons were studied using simulated data to demonstrate some key features of the new algorithm.Comment: Poster at ICHEP08, Philadelphia, USA, July 2008. 5 pages, 3 figure