Košice group and ALICE experiment

In the past physicists from Košice have been colaborating with CERN on HELIOS, WA97 and NA57 experiments. These experiments have been focused on the study of relativistic heavy ions collisions and searching of the quark-gluon plasma signatures. The participation of members from the Department of Subnuclear Physics on the experiment ALICE logically followed from this scientific subject.

Members of the Košice ALICE group

Institute of Experimental Physics SAS in Košice
Ivan Králik
Peter Kaliňák
Marián Krivda
Ingrid Kuľková
Ján Mušinský
Miloš Straka
Jozef Špalek

Faculty of Science UPJŠ in Košice
Marek Bombara
Adela Kravčáková
Janka Vrláková

Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics TU in Košice
Ján Jadlovský

Contribution to the ALICE experiment

Košice group became involved in ALICE experiment at several levels:

Construction of the detector

  • Simulations of the radiation level at different operational and emergency stages of detector, which has been contributed to optimalization of some critical points during planning and designing ALICE experiment
    (B. Pastirčák, J. Vrláková)

  • Developement, production and testing of the router for the Silicon Pixel Detector (SPD)
    • Proposal of the SPD router logical scheme (J. Bán)
    • Developement and production of the router electronics (M. Krivda)
    • Testing, measuring, reparation and service during data taking (M. Krivda, J. Špalek)
    • Developement and production of the JTAG controller for configuration of the SPD detector pixel chipsets (M. Krivda)
    • Developement of the electronics for fast data processing from Silicon Pixel Detector (SPD) and generating fast signals for Central Trigger Processor (CTP) (M. Krivda)

  • Developement and production of the Central Trigger Processor (CTP) in close collaboration with the University of Birmingham UK
    • Developement and operation of CTP software during construction of the ALICE detector and also during data run (A. Jusko)
    • Design and prototyping the TTCit (Trigger Timing and Control interface test) board for optional monitoring and debugging the signal transfer from CTP to the subdetectors (M. Krivda)
    • Developement of corresponding monitoring software for TTCit board (I. Králik)
    • Software application developement in special system PVSS for monitoring and visualization of the results obtained from TTCit module (J. Urbán)

Detector run

  • Developement of the on-line system for LHC luminosity monitoring in ALICE detector (I. Králik)
    • Computer program for LHC beam structure and intensity monitoring, which process data from trigger processor
    • Data analysis from monitoring system

Physical analysis

  • Study of the strange particles production in p-p and Pb-Pb collisions at LHC energies
    • Study of the neutral kaons and lambda hyperons production (L. Šándor, P. Kaliňák, M. Putiš)
    • Study of the φ mesons production (J. Mušinský, M. Vaľa)
  • Analysis of the angular corellations between high transverse momentum strange particles and non-strange particles (P. Kaliňák, M. Bombara)
  • Measurement of cross sections exploited to the normalization of physical results (I. Králik)
  • Establishing computing claster SKAF (Slovak Košice Analysis Facility) for parallel data processing (M. Vaľa)

Update of the ALICE experiment

Already on the present time is in process the preparation of the LHC accelerator and detectors to the data collection at higher energy. This so called Big upgrade is planned in the year 2018. The contribution of our department will be:

  • Designing, developing and constructing of electronics for the Central Trigger Processor (CTP), which improve the selection flexibility of physically interesting events
  • Testing of active and passive electronic components for new Central Trigger Processor (CTP)
  • Rewriting the computer code for the system for beam luminosity monitoring with advanced functions
  • Collaborating on the design of new Central Tracking System (ITS), which improve the measuring precision at increased charged particle density and so will raise the data reading rate.

Presentation of results:

  • M. Bombara: Experiment ALICE at LHC in CERN, first results and Košice ALICE group contribution  (in slovak)  [pdf]
    Košice, 9. 6. 2010

  • M. Krivda: Experiment ALICE at LHC in CERN, first results and Košice ALICE group contribution (in slovak)  [pdf]
    Košice, 9. 6. 2010

  • B. Pastirčák: The radiation levels in ALICE detector during the LHC run in CERN (in slovak)  [pdf]
    Košice, 4. 3. 2009

  • L. Šándor: IEP SAS and ALICE (in slovak)  [pdf]
    Košice, 11. 2. 2009

  • M. Krivda: Electronics for Silicon Pixel Detector of the ALICE experiment (in slovak)  [pdf]
    Košice, 11. 2. 2009

  • L. Šándor: CERN and the Large Hadron Collider (in slovak)  [pdf]
    Košice, 16. 10. 2008

  • L. Šándor: Building ALICE for heavy-ion physics at LHC [pdf]
    Bratislava, 1. 10. 2004