Thursday 27 March 2025
The ALICE Muon Identifier, a detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), has been upgraded and is now operating smoothly in both proton-proton and lead-lead collisions. This upgrade was necessary to cope with the higher interaction rates at the LHC during its third run.
The ALICE Muon Identifier is responsible for detecting muons, which are subatomic particles that are produced when protons collide at incredibly high energies. To do this, it uses Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs), which are detectors made up of thin plates of Bakelite, a type of plastic, and copper strips. When a muon passes through the RPC, it creates an electric signal that is picked up by the copper strips.
The upgrade was necessary because the LHC has been operating at higher energies than before, resulting in more particles being produced during collisions. This means that the ALICE Muon Identifier had to be able to handle a much higher rate of data than before.
To achieve this, the detector was upgraded with new front-end electronics and gas mixtures were adjusted to optimize its performance. The new front-end electronics allowed the detector to operate at a lower voltage, which reduced the risk of damage from high-energy particles. The gas mixtures were also adjusted to improve the detector’s ability to detect muons.
The results are impressive. The detector is now able to efficiently identify muons in both proton-proton and lead-lead collisions, with an efficiency of over 95%. This means that it can accurately determine which particles are muons and which are not.
But what does this mean for science? By detecting muons, the ALICE Muon Identifier is helping scientists to study the properties of quark-gluon plasma, a state of matter that existed in the early universe. Quark-gluon plasma is thought to be made up of quarks and gluons, which are the building blocks of protons and neutrons.
By studying quark-gluon plasma, scientists hope to learn more about how the universe came to be the way it is today. They can do this by analyzing the properties of particles that are produced during collisions at the LHC. These particles can give clues about what happened in the early universe.
The ALICE Muon Identifier has already started providing valuable data for scientists to analyze. The detector has been used to study quarkonia, which are particles made up of quarks and gluons.
Cite this article: “ALICE Muon Identifier Upgrade Enables Efficient Detection of Subatomic Particles in LHC Collisions”, The Science Archive, 2025.
Large Hadron Collider, Alice Muon Identifier, Resistive Plate Chambers, Muons, Proton-Proton Collisions, Lead-Lead Collisions, Quark-Gluon Plasma, Quarks, Gluons, High-Energy Particles, Particle Detection.
