The readout system for the ALICE Zero Degree Calorimeters

Author

Siddhanta, S. ; Cicalo, C. ; De Falco, A. ; Floris, M. ; Masoni, A. ; Puddu, G. ; Serci, S. ; Uras, A. ; Usai, G. ; Arnaldi, R. ; Bianchi, L. ; Bossu, F. ; Chiavassa, E. ; De Marco, N. ; Ferretti, A. ; Gagliardi, M. ; Gallio, M. ; Luparello, G. ; Musso, A

Author_Institution

Ist. Naz. di Fis. Nucleare (INFN), Cagliari, Italy

fYear

2010

fDate

24-28 May 2010

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

5

Abstract

ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) at the CERN LHC will investigate the physics of strongly interacting matter at extreme energy densities where the formation of the Quark Gluon Plasma is expected. Its properties can be studied from observations like the production of mesons with charm and beauty quarks. These observations have to be studied as a function of energy density which is determined by the centrality of collisions. The energy carried by the spectator nucleons, related to the centrality, is measured by the Zero Degree Calorimeters (ZDC). The ZDC readout consists of a VME system with a ZDC readout card (ZRC), a VME Processor, Discriminators, a ZDC Trigger Card (ZTC), scalers, QDCs and TDCs. The system was successfully tested during the 2009 data taking and is currently operational at the LHC. This paper describes the readout system of the ZDC.

Keywords

nuclear electronics; particle calorimetry; readout electronics; transition radiation detectors; A Large Ion Collider Experiment; ALICE zero degree calorimeters; CERN LHC; VME processor; VME system; ZDC readout card; ZDC trigger card; beauty quark; charm quark; energy density function; extreme energy densities; meson production; quark gluon plasma; readout system; spectator nucleons; strongly interacting matter; Control systems; Data acquisition; Large Hadron Collider; Logic gates; Physics; Process control; Timing;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Real Time Conference (RT), 2010 17th IEEE-NPSS

Conference_Location

Lisbon

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-7108-9

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/RTC.2010.5750419

Filename

5750419