VHMPID: a new detector for the ALICE experiment at LHC

A.G. Agócs¹, R. Alfaro², G.G. Barnaföldi¹, R. Bellwied³, Gy. Bencze¹, D. Berényi¹, L. Boldizsár¹, E. Cuautle⁴, G. De Cataldo⁵, D. Di Bari⁵, A. Di Mauro⁶, I. Dominguez⁴, E. Futó¹, E. García⁷, G. Hamar¹, J. Harris⁸, A. Harton⁷, L. Kovács¹, P. Lévai¹, Cs. Lipusz¹, C. Markert⁹, P. Martinengo⁶, M.I. Martinez¹⁰, M. Mastromarco⁵, D. Mayani⁴, L. Molnár¹, E. Nappi⁵, A. Ortiz⁴, G. Paić⁴, C. Pastore⁵, M.E. Patino⁴, D. Perini⁶, D. Perrino⁵, V. Peskov⁴, L. Pinsky³, F. Piuz⁶, S. Pochybovâ¹, N. Smirnov⁸, J. Song¹¹, A. Timmins³, D. Varga¹², A. Vargas¹⁰, S. Vergara¹⁰, G. Volpe⁵, J. Yi¹¹ and I.K. Yoo¹¹

¹ MTA KFKIRMKI, Research Institute for Particle and Nuclear Physics, Budapest, Hungary
² Instituto de Fisica Universidad Nacional Autônoma de Mexico, Mexico, Mexico
³ University of Houston, Houston, USA
⁴ Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico, Mexico
⁵ Universita degli Studi di Bari, Dipartimento Interateneo di Fisica "M. Merlin" & INFN Sezione di Bari, Bari, Italy
⁶ CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
⁷ Chicago State University, Chicago, IL, USA
⁸ Yale University, New Haven, USA
⁹ University of Texas at Austin, Austin, USA
¹⁰ Benemerita Universidad Autonoma de Puebla, Puebla, Mexico
¹¹ Pusan National University, Dept. of Physics, Pusan, South Korea
¹² Eotvos University, Budapest, Hungary

Published online: 19 April 2011

Abstract

This article presents the basic idea of VHMPID, an upgrade detector for the ALICE experiment at LHC, CERN. The main goal of this detector is to extend the particle identification capabilities of ALICE to give more insight into the evolution of the hot and dense matter created in Pb-Pb collisions. Starting from the physics motivations and working principles the challenges and current status of development is detailed.