Calibration of the CMS electromagnetic calorimeter with LHC collision data

The CMS ECAL is a high resolution electromagnetic calorimeter which relies upon precision calibration in order to achieve and maintain its design performance. Variations in light collected from the lead tungstate crystals, due to intrinsic differences in crystals/photodetectors, as well as variations with time due to radiation damage for example, need to be taken into account. Sophisticated and effective methods of inter-crystal and absolute calibration have been devised, using collision data from the 2011 LHC run and a dedicated light injection system. For inter-calibration, low mass particle ( π 0 and η ) decays to two photons are exploited, as well as the azimuthal symmetry of the average energy deposition at a given pseudorapidity. The light injection system monitors the channel response in real-time and enables the re-calibration of the measured energies over time. This is cross-checked by the comparison of E/p measurements of electrons from W decays (where the momentum is measured in the CMS tracker) with/without these re-calibrations applied. Absolute calibration has been performed using Z decays into electron–positron pairs.