109176666
The data acquisition system of the SuperB-SVT beam test
Abstract Prototypes of a new hybrid pixel detector and a high resistivity detector with short strips, developed by the VIPIX Collaboration and aimed at equipping the layer-0 of the SuperB vertex detector, have been tested in September 2011 with a 120 GeV pion beam at the SPS H6 beam line at CERN. They are placed at the center of a reference telescope consisting of six planes of silicon detector with a double-sided strip readout. Both the telescope and the detectors under test (DUT) are equipped with a custom-design, data-push digital readout. The main elements of the trigger and data acquisition system are two VME boards (EDRO) organized in a master-slave configuration and responsible for programming the front-end chips of both the telescope and the DUT. The master board distributes a global synchronization clock and the triggers to all devices, including two 3×3 analog-maps matrices placed behind the DUT and supplied with an independent readout. Both EDROs act as event-fragment builders. These are sent out to a remote PC for event building, buffering and storage.
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%.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
119158982
LEPTONIC ELECTROWEAK SPIN-TORSION INTERACTIONS
In this paper we consider the most general field equations for a system of two fermions of which one single-handed, showing that the spin-torsion interactions among these spinors have a structure identical to that of the electroweak forces among leptons; possible extensions are discussed.
119283968
HIGHER-ORDER THEORIES OF GRAVITATION
We study higher-order theories of gravitation; in particular, we will focus our attention on the second-order theory, in which conformal symmetry can be implemented.
119221698
On geometrically unified fields and universal constants
We consider the Cartan extension of Riemann geometry as the basis upon which to build the Sciama–Kibble completion of Einstein gravity, developing the most general theory in which torsion and metric have two independent coupling constants: the main problem of the ESK theory was that torsion, having the Newton constant, was negligible beyond the Planck scale, but in this $$\mathrm {ESK}^{2}$$ theory torsion, with its own coupling constant, may be relevant much further Planck scales; further consequences of these torsionally-induced interactions will eventually be discussed.
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.