I. Sgura

A very high momentum particle identification detector

Abstract.A new detector concept has been investigated to extend the capabilities of heavy-ion collider experiments, represented here through the ALICE detector, in the high transverse momentum (pT region. The resulting Very High Momentum Particle Identification Detector (VHMPID) performs charged hadron identification on a track-by-track basis in the 5 GeV/c < p < 25 GeV/c momentum range and provides heavy-ion experiments with new opportunities to study parton-medium interactions at RHIC and LHC energies, where the creation of deconfined quark-gluon matter has been established. The detector is based on novel advances to the pressurized gaseous ring imaging Cherenkov (RICH) concept, which yield a very compact, high resolution addition to existing heavy-ion experiments. We conclude that in order for the device to yield statistically significant results not only for single particle measurements, but also for di-hadron and jet-tagged correlation studies, it has to cover contiguously up to 30% of a central barrel detector in radial direction. This will allow, for the first time, identified charged hadron measurements in jets. In this paper we summarize the physics motivations for such a device, as well as its conceptual design, layout, and integration into ALICE.

The trigger and data acquisition for the NEMO-Phase 2 tower

In the framework of the Phase 2 of the NEMO neutrino telescope project, a tower with 32 optical modules is being operated since march 2013. A new scalable Trigger and Data Acquisition System (TriDAS) has been developed and extensively tested with the data from this tower. Adopting the all-data-to-shore concept, the NEMO TriDAS is optimized to deal with a continuous data-stream from off-shore to on-shore with a large bandwidth. The TriDAS consists of four computing layers: (i) data aggregation of isochronal hits from all optical modules; (ii) data filtering by means of concurrent trigger algorithms; (iii) composition of the filtered events into post-trigger files; (iv) persistent data storage. The TriDAS implementation is reported together with a review of dedicated on-line monitoring tools.

Long-term optical background measurements in the Capo Passero deep-sea site

In March 2013, the Nemo Phase-2 tower has been successfully installed at 100 km off-shore Capo Passero (Italy) and 3500 m depth. This 8-floor tower hosts 32 10-inch PMTs. Results from optical background measurements are presented. In particular, the analyzed rates show stable and low baseline values, compatible with the contribution of 40K light emission, with a small percentage of light bursts due to bioluminescence. All these features are a confirmation of the stability and good optical nature of the site.