109274131
The EDRO Board Connected to the Associative Memory: a “Baby” FastTracKer Processor for the ATLAS Experiment
Abstract The FastTracKer (FTK), a hardware dedicated processor, performs fast and precise online full track reconstruction at the ATLAS experiment, within an average latency of few dozens of microseconds. Before production of the ﬁnal system for tracking in high-occupancy conditions with the best of available technology, we plan to use existing prototypes of the FTK hardware to exercise its functions in the ATLAS environment. We describe the “baby FTK”, consisting of a few hardware elements implementing the ﬁrst stages of the system, and discuss our plans to grow the system into a full-functionality FTK “vertical slice” covering a small projective wedge of the detector. We report on the performances and structure of the “baby FTK”, including the pixel/strip hit clustering (clustering mezzanine), hit organization and distribution (EDRO) and the Associative Memory pattern recognition function. We describe brieﬂy also the possible future evolution including the addition of the Track Fitter.
111127502
The front-end chip of the SuperB SVT detector
Abstract The asymmetric e + e − collider SuperB is designed to deliver a high luminosity, greater than 10 36 cm − 2 s − 1 , with moderate beam currents and a reduced center of mass boost with respect to earlier B-Factories. The innermost detector is the Silicon Vertex Tracker which is made of 5 layers of double sided silicon strip sensors plus a layer 0, that can be equipped with short striplets detectors in a first phase of the experiment. In order to achieve an overall track reconstruction efficiency above 98% it is crucial to optimize both analog and digital readout circuits. The readout architecture being developed for the front-end chips will be able to cope with the very high rates expected in the first layer. The digital readout will be optimized to be fully efficient for hit rates up to 2 MHz/strip, including large margins on the maximum expected background rates, but can potentially accommodate higher rates with a proper tuning of the buffer depth. The readout is based on a triggered architecture where each of the 128 strip channel is provided with a dedicated digital buffer. Each buffer collects the digitized charge information by means of a 4-bit TOT, storing it in conjunction with the related time stamp. The depth of buffers was dimensioned considering the expected trigger latency and hit rate including suitable safety margins. Every buffer is connected to a highly parallelized circuit handling the trigger logic, rejecting expired data in the buffers and channeling the parallel stream of triggered hits to the common output of the chip. The presented architecture has been modeled by HDL language and investigated with a Monte Carlo hit generator emulating the analog front-end behavior. The simulations showed that even applying the highest stressing conditions, about 2 MHz per strip, the efficiency of the digital readout remained above 99.8%.
22317714
2D and 3D thin pixel technologies for the Layer0 of the SuperB Silicon Vertex Tracker
The high luminosity asymmetric e+e− collider SuperB, recently approved by the Italian Government, is designed to deliver a luminosity greater than 1036cm−2s−1 with moderate beam currents and a reduced center of mass boost with respect to earlier B-Factories. An improved vertex resolution is required for precise time-dependent measurements and the SuperB Silicon Vertex Tracker will be equipped with an innermost layer of small radius (about 1.5 cm), resolution of 10 µm in both coordinates, low material budget (&#60; 1% X0), and able to withstand a hit background rate of several tens of MHz/cm2. The ambitious goal of designing a thin pixel device matching these stringent requirements is being pursued with specific R&D programs on different technologies: CMOS MAPS, pixel sensors in vertical integration technology and hybrid pixels with small pitch and reduced material budget. The latest results on the characterization of the various pixel devices realized for the SuperB Layer0 will be presented.
120117699
Latest results of the R&D on CMOS MAPS for the Layer0 of the SuperB SVT
Physics and high background conditions set very challenging requirements on readout speed, material budget and resolution for the innermost layer of the SuperB Silicon Vertex Tracker operated at the full luminosity. Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (MAPS) are very appealing in this application since the thin sensitive region allows grinding the substrate to tens of microns. Deep N-Well MAPS, developed in the ST 130 nm CMOS technology, achieved in-pixel sparsification and fast time stamping. Further improvements are being explored with an intense R&D program, including both vertical integration and 2D MAPS with the INMAPS quadruple well. We present the results of the characterization with IR laser, radioactive sources and beam of several chips produced with the 3D (Chartered/Tezzaron) process. We have also studied prototypes exploiting the features of the quadruple well and the high resistivity epitaxial layer of the INMAPS 180 nm process. Promising results from an irradiation campaign with neutrons on small matrices and other test-structures, as well as the response of the sensors to high energy charged tracks are presented.
16866620
Analysis of charmonium production at fixed-target experiments in the NRQCD approach
We present an analysis of the existing data on charmonium hadro-production based on non-relativistic QCD (NRQCD) calculations at the next-to-leading order (NLO). All the data on J/psi and psi' production in fixed-target experiments and on pp collisions at low energy are included. We find that the amount of color octet contribution needed to describe the data is about 1/10 of that found at the Tevatron.
120546156
A radiation tolerant phototube power supply for the electromagnetic calorimeter of the HERA-B experiment
Abstract The design of the phototube power supply for the HERA- B Electromagnetic Calorimeter is presented. A choice of the solution on the basis of the Cockcroft–Walton voltage multiplier is validated. Schematics developed are discussed. A special section describes the behaviour of the crucial components under irradiation since radiation tolerance becomes one of the most important items in the severe HERA- B radiation environment. Finally, performance achieved is presented.
118477044
A Discussion on Dirac Field Theory, No-Go Theorems and Renormalizability
We study Dirac field equations coupled to electrodynamics with metric and torsion fields: we discuss how special spinorial solutions are incompatible with torsion; eventually these results will be used to sketch a discussion on the problem of renormalizability of point-like particles.
123600595
CONFORMAL GRAVITY AND GRAVITATIONAL WAVES
We consider monochromatic, plane gravitational waves in a conformally invariant theory of general relativity. We show that the simple, standard ansatz for the metric, usually that which is taken for the linearized theory of these waves, is reducible to the metric of Minkowski spacetime via a sequence of conformal and coordinate transformations. This implies that we have in fact, exact plane wave solutions. However they are simply coordinate/conformal artifacts. As a consequence, they carry no energy.
15234170
Spontaneous breaking of conformal invariance in theories of conformally coupled matter and Weyl gravity
We study the theory of Weyl conformal gravity with matter degrees of freedom in a conformally invariant interaction. Specifically, we consider a triplet of scalar fields and SO(3) non-Abelian gauge fields, i.e. the Georgi–Glashow model conformally coupled to Weyl gravity. We show that the equations of motion admit solutions spontaneously breaking the conformal symmetry and the gauge symmetry, providing a mechanism for supplying a scale in the theory. The vacuum solution corresponds to anti-de Sitter spacetime, while localized soliton solutions correspond to magnetic monopoles in asymptotically anti-de Sitter spacetime. This mechanism strengthens the reasons for considering conformally invariant matter-gravity theory, which has shown promising indications concerning the problem of missing matter in galactic rotation curves.
119153029
Metric-torsional conformal gravity
Abstract When in general geometric backgrounds the metric is accompanied by torsion, the metric conformal properties should correspondingly be followed by analogous torsional conformal properties; however a combined metric torsional conformal structure has never been found which provides a curvature that is both containing metric-torsional degree of freedom and conformally invariant: in this Letter we construct such a metric-torsional conformal curvature. We proceed by building the most general action, then deriving the most general system of field equations; we check their consistency by showing that both conservation laws and trace condition are verified. Final considerations and comments are outlined.
119247598
From the Torsion Tensor for Spinors to the Weak Forces for Leptons
We consider a geometric approach to field theory in which torsion is present beside gravity and also electrodynamics for the matter field equations, and we develop the consequences of the torsion-spin coupling for the spinor fields; we show that these interactions have the structure of the weak interactions acting among leptons: we discuss the implications for the standard model of fundamental interactions of elementary fields in the perspective of the foundations of unification in theoretical physics.