Bonn 2010 – scientific programme

Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Downloads | Help

HK: Fachverband Physik der Hadronen und Kerne

HK 58: Instrumentierung XII

HK 58.5: Talk

Thursday, March 18, 2010, 17:45–18:00, HG IX

Particle Identification with the Transition Radiation Detector in ALICE — •Markus Heide and Alexander Wilk — WWU Münster

The Transition Radiation Detector (TRD) is the main device for electron identification at high momenta in ALICE for η < 0.9. It uses the emission of transition radiation typically caused by ultra-relativistic electrons when crossing surfaces between materials with different dielectric constants, which allows for an effective electron/pion separation.

For the evaluation of the signals from different particle species for PID, several strategies are envisaged: The overall energy deposition in each TRD chamber is used in a 1-dimensional likelihood method and the calculation of a truncated mean value, while a 2-dimensional likelihood method and PID with artificial neural networks additionally exploit the temporal pattern of the TRD signal for distinction between electrons and other particles.

Samples of several particle species are needed for reference signals and to test the TRD PID performance. They can be extracted from simulations, test beam data, or displaced vertices from real proton-proton collisions in ALICE.

*Supported by BMBF and EMMI.