https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/i2017-11279-1
Regular Article
Determination of the event collision time with the ALICE detector at the LHC
1
A.I. Alikhanyan National Science Laboratory (Yerevan Physics Institute) Foundation, Yerevan, Armenia
2
Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Puebla, Mexico
3
Bogolyubov Institute for Theoretical Physics, Kiev, Ukraine
4
Bose Institute, Department of Physics and Centre for Astroparticle Physics and Space Science (CAPSS), Kolkata, India
5
Budker Institute for Nuclear Physics, Novosibirsk, Russia
6
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, California, USA
7
Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China
8
Centre de Calcul de l’IN2P3, Villeurbanne, Lyon, France
9
Centro de Aplicaciones Tecnológicas y Desarrollo Nuclear (CEADEN), Havana, Cuba
10
Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas Medioambientales y Tecnológicas (CIEMAT), Madrid, Spain
11
Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados (CINVESTAV), Mexico City and Mérida, Mexico
12
Centro Fermi - Museo Storico della Fisica e Centro Studi e Ricerche “Enrico Fermi”, Rome, Italy
13
Chicago State University, Chicago, Illinois, USA
14
China Institute of Atomic Energy, Beijing, China
15
Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique, IRFU, Saclay, France
16
COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT), Islamabad, Pakistan
17
Departamento de Física de Partículas and IGFAE, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
18
Department of Physics, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India
19
Department of Physics, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA
20
Department of Physics, Sejong University, Seoul, South Korea
21
Department of Physics, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
22
Department of Physics and Technology, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
23
Dipartimento di Fisica, dell’Università “La Sapienza” and Sezione INFN, Rome, Italy
24
Dipartimento di Fisica, dell’Università and Sezione INFN, Cagliari, Italy
25
Dipartimento di Fisica, dell’Università and Sezione INFN, Trieste, Italy
26
Dipartimento di Fisica, dell’Università and Sezione INFN, Turin, Italy
27
Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, dell’Università and Sezione INFN, Bologna, Italy
28
Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, dell’Università and Sezione INFN, Catania, Italy
29
Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, dell’Università and Sezione INFN, Padova, Italy
30
Dipartimento di Fisica `E.R. Caianiello’, dell’Università and Gruppo Collegato INFN, Salerno, Italy
31
Dipartimento DISAT del Politecnico, Sezione INFN, Turin, Italy
32
Dipartimento di Scienze e Innovazione Tecnologica dell’Università del Piemonte Orientale, INFN Sezione di Torino, Alessandria, Italy
33
Dipartimento Interateneo di Fisica `M. Merlin’ and Sezione INFN, Bari, Italy
34
Division of Experimental High Energy Physics, University of Lund, Lund, Sweden
35
European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Geneva, Switzerland
36
Excellence Cluster Universe, Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany
37
Faculty of Engineering, Bergen University College, Bergen, Norway
38
Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia
39
Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
40
Faculty of Science, P.J. Šafárik University, Košice, Slovakia
41
Faculty of Technology, Buskerud and Vestfold University College, Tonsberg, Norway
42
Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
43
Gangneung-Wonju National University, Gangneung, South Korea
44
Gauhati University, Department of Physics, Guwahati, India
45
Helmholtz-Institut für Strahlen- und Kernphysik, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, Bonn, Germany
46
Helsinki Institute of Physics (HIP), Helsinki, Finland
47
Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan
48
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT), Mumbai, India
49
Indian Institute of Technology Indore, Indore, India
50
Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Jakarta, Indonesia
51
Inha University, Incheon, South Korea
52
Institut de Physique Nucléaire d’Orsay (IPNO), Université Paris-Sud, CNRS-IN2P3, Orsay, France
53
Institute for Nuclear Research, Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
54
Institute for Subatomic Physics of Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands
55
Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics, Moscow, Russia
56
Institute of Experimental Physics, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Košice, Slovakia
57
Institute of Physics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic
58
Institute of Physics, Bhubaneswar, India
59
Institute of Space Science (ISS), Bucharest, Romania
60
Institut für Informatik, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
61
Institut für Kernphysik, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
62
Institut für Kernphysik, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Münster, Germany
63
Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico
64
Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, Brazil
65
Instituto de Física, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico
66
Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien (IPHC), Université de Strasbourg, CNRS-IN2P3, Strasbourg, France
67
iThemba LABS, National Research Foundation, Somerset West, South Africa
68
Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR), Dubna, Russia
69
Konkuk University, Seoul, South Korea
70
Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information, Daejeon, South Korea
71
KTO Karatay University, Konya, Turkey
72
Laboratoire de Physique Corpusculaire (LPC), Clermont Université, Université Blaise Pascal, CNRS-IN2P3, Clermont-Ferrand, France
73
Laboratoire de Physique Subatomique et de Cosmologie, Université Grenoble-Alpes, CNRS-IN2P3, Grenoble, France
74
Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, INFN, Frascati, Italy
75
Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro, INFN, Legnaro, Italy
76
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, USA
77
Moscow Engineering Physics Institute, Moscow, Russia
78
Nagasaki Institute of Applied Science, Nagasaki, Japan
79
National Centre for Nuclear Studies, Warsaw, Poland
80
National Institute for Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Bucharest, Romania
81
National Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhubaneswar, India
82
National Research Centre Kurchatov Institute, Moscow, Russia
83
Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
84
Nikhef, Nationaal instituut voor subatomaire fysica, Amsterdam, Netherlands
85
Nuclear Physics Group, STFC Daresbury Laboratory, Daresbury, UK
86
Nuclear Physics Institute, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Řež u Prahy, Czech Republic
87
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA
88
Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, Gatchina, Russia
89
Physics Department, Creighton University, Nebraska, Omaha, USA
90
Physics Department, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India
91
Physics Department, University of Athens, Athens, Greece
92
Physics Department, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
93
Physics Department, University of Jammu, Jammu, India
94
Physics Department, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, India
95
Physikalisches Institut, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
96
Physikalisches Institut, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
97
Physik Department, Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany
98
Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA
99
Pusan National University, Pusan, South Korea
100
Research Division and ExtreMe Matter Institute EMMI, GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, Darmstadt, Germany
101
Rudjer Bošković Institute, Zagreb, Croatia
102
Russian Federal Nuclear Center (VNIIEF), Sarov, Russia
103
Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata, India
104
School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
105
Sección Física, Departamento de Ciencias, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, Peru
106
Sezione INFN, Bari, Italy
107
Sezione INFN, Bologna, Italy
108
Sezione INFN, Cagliari, Italy
109
Sezione INFN, Catania, Italy
110
Sezione INFN, Padova, Italy
111
Sezione INFN, Rome, Italy
112
Sezione INFN, Trieste, Italy
113
Sezione INFN, Turin, Italy
114
SSC IHEP of NRC Kurchatov institute, Protvino, Russia
115
Stefan Meyer Institut für Subatomare Physik (SMI), Vienna, Austria
116
SUBATECH, Ecole des Mines de Nantes, Université de Nantes, CNRS-IN2P3, Nantes, France
117
Suranaree University of Technology, Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand
118
Technical University of Košice, Košice, Slovakia
119
Technical University of Split FESB, Split, Croatia
120
The Henryk Niewodniczanski Institute of Nuclear Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Cracow, Poland
121
The University of Texas at Austin, Physics Department, Austin, Texas, USA
122
Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa, Culiacán, Mexico
123
Universidade de São Paulo (USP), São Paulo, Brazil
124
Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, Brazil
125
Universidade Federal do ABC, Santo Andre, Brazil
126
University of Houston, Houston, Texas, USA
127
University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland
128
University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
129
University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
130
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
131
University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
132
University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan
133
University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
134
Université de Lyon, Université Lyon 1, CNRS/IN2P3, Lyon, France
135
Università di Brescia, Brescia, Italy
136
V. Fock Institute for Physics, St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia
137
Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre, Kolkata, India
138
Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland
139
Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, USA
140
Wigner Research Centre for Physics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
141
Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
142
Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea
143
Zentrum für Technologietransfer und Telekommunikation (ZTT), Fachhochschule Worms, Worms, Germany
* e-mail: alice-publications@cern.ch
Received:
20
October
2016
Accepted:
2
December
2016
Published online:
24
February
2017
Particle identification is an important feature of the ALICE detector at the LHC. In particular, for particle identification via the time-of-flight technique, the precise determination of the event collision time represents an important ingredient of the quality of the measurement. In this paper, the different methods used for such a measurement in ALICE by means of the T0 and the TOF detectors are reviewed. Efficiencies, resolution and the improvement of the particle identification separation power of the methods used are presented for the different LHC colliding systems (pp, p-Pb and Pb-Pb) during the first period of data taking of LHC (RUN 1).
© CERN for the benefit of the ALICE Collaboration, 2017
