111306145
Development of thin sensors and a novel interconnection technology for the upgrade of the ATLAS pixel system
To extend the discovery potential of the experiments at the LHC accelerator a luminosity upgrade towards the super LHC (sLHC) with an up to ten-fold peak luminosity is planned. Within this thesis a new module concept was developed and evaluated for the operation within an ATLAS pixel detector at the sLHC. This module concept utilizes a novel thin sensor production process for thin n-in-p silicon sensors which potentially allow for a higher radiation hardness at a reduced cost. Furthermore, the new 3D-integration technology ICV-SLID is explored which will allow for increasing the active area of the modules and hence, for employing the modules in the innermost layer of the upgraded ATLAS pixel detector.
108645383
The ATLAS Silicon Pixel Sensors
Abstract Prototype sensors for the ATLAS silicon pixel detector have been developed. The design of the sensors is guided by the need to operate them in the severe LHC radiation environment at up to several hundred volts while maintaining a good signal-to-noise ratio, small cell size, and minimal multiple scattering. The ability to be operated under full bias for electrical characterization prior to attachment of the readout integrated circuit electronics is also desired.
195868697
Irradiation tests of double-sided silicon strip detectors with a special guard ring structure
The results of the first irradiation tests of newly designed silicon microstrip detectors performed with 21 MeV protons at the Max-Planck-Institut in Heidelberg are presented. The detectors were developed and produced by the semiconductor laboratory of the Max-Planck-Institut in Munich. Novel guard ring structures allow operation of the detectors at voltages exceeding 300 V.
73653251
Imaging performance of a DEPFET pixel Bioscope system in Tritium autoradiography
Abstract A Bioscope system based on a 64 × 64 -matrix of DEPFET pixels has been developed for real-time digital autoradiography in biomedical applications. It provides very good energy and spatial resolution at the same time. The DEPFET pixel cells consist of p -channel JFETs integrated into the high-ohmic n -silicon substrate. This leads to a very low noise performance at room temperature. Two dedicated ASIC chips have been developed for steering and readout of the pixel matrix. The measured system noise of ( 69 ± 4 ) e - at 35 ∘ C is mostly due to sensor leakage current and can be largely reduced by cooling or a faster readout. The spatial resolution is examined by measurements with a laser as well as with a dedicated test chart and is determined to be ( 6.7 ± 0.7 ) μ m for 6 keV-X-rays and 4.3 ± 0.8 μ m for 22 keV-X-rays. The measurements are compared to simulation results with different reconstruction algorithms. Due to the thin entrance window at the detector backside and the low noise performance, a detection of low-energy β -emitters such as 3H is possible. Measurements with 3H-labeled biological samples were taken. The ability of the DEPFET pixel Bioscope to separate different radiolabels in the same sample is demonstrated by a measurement with 3H and 14C.
19809846
Development of Fast High-Resolution Muon Drift-Tube Detectors for High Counting Rates
Abstract Pressurized drift-tube chambers are efficient detectors for high-precision tracking over large areas. The Monitored Drift-Tube (MDT) chambers of the muon spectrometer of the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) reach a spatial resolution of 35 μ m and almost 100% tracking efficiency with 6 layers of 30 mm diameter drift tubes operated with an Ar:CO 2 (93:7) gas mixture at 3 bar and a gas gain of 20 000. The ATLAS MDT chambers are designed to cope with background counting rates due to neutrons and γ rays of up to about 300 kHz per tube which will be exceeded for LHC luminosities larger than the design value of 10 34  cm −1  s −1 . Decreasing the drift-tube diameter to 15 mm while keeping the other parameters, including the gas gain, unchanged reduces the maximum drift time from about 700 to 200 ns and the drift-tube occupancy by a factor of 7. New drift-tube chambers for the endcap regions of the ATLAS muon spectrometer have been designed. A prototype chamber consisting of 12 times 8 layers of 15 mm diameter drift tubes of 1 m length has been constructed with a sense wire positioning accuracy of 20 μ m . The 15 mm diameter drift-tubes have been tested with cosmic rays in the Gamma Irradiation Facility at CERN at γ counting rates of up to 1.85 MHz.
34283775
Tracking and level-1 triggering in the forward region of the ATLAS muon spectrometer at sLHC
In the endcap region of the ATLAS Muon Spectrometer (η  >  1) precision tracking and Level-1 triggering are performed by different types of chambers. Monitored Drift Tube chambers (MDT) and Cathode Strip Chambers (CSC) are used for precision tracking, while Thin Gap Chambers (TGC) form the Level-1 muon trigger, selecting muons with high transverse momentum (pT). When by 2018 the LHC peak luminosity of 1034 cm−2s−1 will be increased by a factor of ~ 2 and by another factor of ~ 2–2.5 in about a decade from now (``SLHC''), an improvement of both systems, precision tracking and Level-1 triggering, will become mandatory in order to cope with the high rate of uncorrelated background hits (``cavern background'') and to stay below the maximum trigger rate for the muon system, which is in the range of 10–20 % of the 100 kHz rate, allowed for ATLAS. For the Level-1 trigger of the ATLAS Muon Spectrometer this means a stronger suppression of sub-threshold muons in the high-pT trigger as well as a better rejection of tracks not coming from the primary interaction point. Both requirements, however, can only be fulfilled if spatial resolution and angular pointing accuracy of the trigger chambers, in particular of those in the Inner Station of the endcap, are improved by a large factor. This calls for a complete replacement of the currrently used TGC chambers by a new type of trigger chambers with better performance. In parallel, the precision tracking chambers must be replaced by chambers with higher rate capability to be able to cope with the intense cavern background. In this article we present concepts to decisively improve the Level-1 trigger with newly developed trigger chambers, being characterized by excellent spatial resolution, good time resolution and sufficiently short latency. We also present new types of precision chambers, designed to maintain excellent tracking efficiency and spatial resolution in the presence of high levels of uncorrelated background hits, as generated by γ and neutron conversions.
16346923
(Non-)BPS bound states and D-brane instantons
We study non-perturbative effects in four-dimensional = 1 supersymmetric orientifold compactifications due to D-brane instantons which are not invariant under the orientifold projection. We show that they can yield superpotential contributions via a multi-instanton process at threshold. Some constituents of this configuration form bound states away from the wall of marginal stability which can decay in other regions of moduli space. A microscopic analysis reveals how contributions to the superpotential are possible when new BPS states compensate for their decay. We study this concretely for D2-brane instantons along decaying special Lagrangians in Type IIA and for D5-branes instantons carrying holomorphic bundles in Type I theory.
120394706
Construction and test of a full prototype drift-tube chamber for the upgrade of the ATLAS muon spectrometer at high LHC luminosities
Abstract For the planned high-luminosity upgrades of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) background rates of neutrons and gamma rays of up to 14 kHz / cm 2 are expected which exceed the rate capability of the current ATLAS precision muon tracking detectors, the Monitored Drift Tube (MDT) chambers, with a drift tube diameter of 30 mm. Smaller diameter drift tube (sMDT) chambers with 15 mm tube diameter have been developed for upgrades of the ATLAS muon spectrometer. A full sMDT prototype chamber has been constructed and tested in a muon beam at CERN and with cosmic muons at high background irradiation rates of up to 95 kHz / cm 2 and 1400 kHz/tube. The test results demonstrate the required track reconstruction efficiency and spatial resolution of the sMDT chambers at background rates well beyond the maximum expected values at high-luminosity LHC. The sense wire locations in the prototype chamber have been measured with few microns precision with cosmic rays using precise reference chambers confirming the required wire positioning accuracy of better than the 20 μ m .
110325204
Upgrade of the Readout Electronics of the ATLAS MDT Detector for SLHC
Simulation predicts a high level of ionizing radiation in the ATLAS experimental hall during LHC operation. This radiation will act as a source of background signals to the four subsystems of the ATLAS muon detector. We present the performance of the Monitored Drift Tube detector (MDT) under these background conditions and discuss the consequences for the much higher background rates at SLHC with respect to tracking efficiency, resolution and readout bandwidth. For rates beyond the expected LHC levels, we discuss options to improve the performance of detector and electronics.
19280329
Sharpening the ATLAS muon trigger for high luminosity operation at the LHC
The outer shell of the ATLAS experiment at the LHC consists of a system of toroidal air-core magnets in order to allow for the precise measurement of the transverse momentum (pT) of muons, which in many physics channels are a signature of interesting physics processes [1], [2]. For the precise determination of the muon momentum Monitored Drift Tube chambers (MDT) with high position accuracy are used, while for the fast identification of muon tracks chambers with high time resolution are used, able to select muons above a predefined pT threshold for use in the first Level of the ATLAS triggering system (Level-1 trigger). When the LHC peak luminosity will be increased by a factor of 4–5 in about a decade from now (”SLHC”), an improvement of the selectivity of the ATLAS Level-1 triggering system will be mandatory in order to cope with the maximum allowed trigger rate of 100 kHz. For the Level-1 trigger of the ATLAS muon spectrometer this means an increase of the pT threshold for single muons. Due to the limited spatial resolution of the trigger chambers, however, the selectivity for tracks above ∼20 GeV/c is insufficient for an effective reduction of the Level-1 rate. We describe how the track coordinates measured in the MDT precision chambers can be used to decisively improve the selectivity for high momentum tracks. The resulting increase in latency will also be discussed.
118060107
New Stringy Instanton Effects And Neutrino Majorana Masses
D‐brane instantons can generate open string couplings in the superpotential which violate global abelian symmetries and are therefore perturbatively forbidden. After discussing the main ingredients, focussing for concretenes on Type IIA orientifold compactifications, we exemplify the computation of instanton‐induced Majorana mass terms for right‐handed neutrinos in a local SU(5) GUT‐like model. In particular, we show that the instanton allows for naturally engineering the intermediate scale of the Majorana masses, thereby realizing the seesaw mechanism for neutrinos.