The MRPC detector for the ALICE Time Of Flight System: Final Design and Performances

• Published in: Nuclear physics. Section B, Proceedings supplement Vol. 158; pp. 60 - 65
• Main Authors: Akindinov, A., Alessandrini, S., Alici, A., Antonioli, P., Arcelli, S., Basile, M., Cara Romeo, G., Cavazza, D., Cifarelli, L., Cindolo, F., D'Antone, I., De Caro, A., De Pasquale, S., Di Bartolomeo, A., Furini, M., Fusco Girard, M., Golovin, V., Grishuk, Yu, Guerzoni, M., Guida, M., Hatzifotiadou, D., Jung, W.W., Kim, H.N., Kim, D.H., Kim, D.W., Kiselev, S., Laurenti, G., Luvisetto, M.L., Mal'kevich, D., Margotti, A., Massera, F., Meneghini, S., Michinelli, R., Nania, R., Noferini, F., Pancaldi, G., Pesci, A., Pilastrini, R., Pinazza, O., Preghenella, R., Rizzi, M., Ryabinin, M., Scapparone, E., Scioli, G., Sellitto, S., Semeria, F., Serra, S., Silvestri, R., Smirnitski, A., Ugolini, E., Usenko, E., Voloshin, K., Williams, M.C.S., Zagreev, B., Zampolli, C., Zichichi, A., Zinine, A., Zucchini, A., Zuffa, M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.08.2006
• ISSN: 0920-5632; 1873-3832
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nuclphysbps.2006.07.035

The ALICE Time Of Flight (TOF) system will perform charged particle identification in the intermediate momentum range (from 0.5 to a few GeV/c) and in the central pseudorapidity region ( | η | < 0.9 ). In particular the TOF has to cover an area of ∼ 160 m 2 and has to be highly segmented (∼ 160000 readout pads of 2.5 × 3.7 cm 2 active area) in order to keep the occupancy in Pb-Pb collisions below the 15 % level. In order to satisfy these requirements, the double-stack MRPC detector has been chosen for the TOF system. The most relevant results on the performances of the final version of the MRPC and of the front-end/readout electronics will be presented. The device has a very good uniformity, a long streamer-free plateau, an efficiency higher than 99 % and an intrinsic time resolution below 50 ps.