Vjaceslav Georgiev

Evidence for non-exponential elastic proton-proton differential cross-section at low |t| and √ s = 8 TeV by TOTEM

Abstract The TOTEM experiment has made a precise measurement of the elastic proton–proton differential cross-section at the centre-of-mass energy s = 8 TeV based on a high-statistics data sample obtained with the β ⁎ = 90 m optics. Both the statistical and systematic uncertainties remain below 1%, except for the t-independent contribution from the overall normalisation. This unprecedented precision allows to exclude a purely exponential differential cross-section in the range of four-momentum transfer squared 0.027 | t | 0.2 GeV 2 with a significance greater than 7 σ . Two extended parametrisations, with quadratic and cubic polynomials in the exponent, are shown to be well compatible with the data. Using them for the differential cross-section extrapolation to t = 0 , and further applying the optical theorem, yields total cross-section estimates of ( 101.5 ± 2.1 ) mb and ( 101.9 ± 2.1 ) mb , respectively, in agreement with previous TOTEM measurements.

Parallel Algorithm for Concurrent Computation of Connected Component Tree

The paper proposes a new parallel connected-component-tree construction algorithm based on line independent building and progressive merging of partial 1-D trees. Two parallelization strategies were developed: the parallelism maximization strategy, which balances the workload of the processes, and the communication minimization strategy, which minimizes communication among the processes. The new algorithm is able to process any pixel data type, thanks to not using a hierarchical queue. The algorithm needs only the input and output buffers and a small stack. A speedup of 3.57 compared to the sequential algorithm was obtained on Opteron 4-core shared memory ccNUMA architecture. Performance comparison with existing state of the art is also discussed.

Parallel implementation of sequential morphological filters

Many useful morphological filters are built as more or less long concatenations of erosions and dilations: openings, closings, size distributions, sequential filters, etc. An efficient implementation of these concatenations would allow all the sequentially concatenated operators run simultaneously, on the time-delayed data. A recent algorithm (see below) for the morphological dilation/erosion allows such inter-operator parallelism. This paper introduces an additional, intra-operator level of parallelism in this dilation/erosion algorithm. Realized in a dedicated hardware, for rectangular structuring elements with programmable size, such an implementation allows obtaining previously unachievable, real-time performances for these traditionally costly operators. Low latency and memory requirements are the main benefits when the performance is not deteriorated even for long concatenations or high-resolution images.

Pipeline architecture for compound morphological operators

In this paper we present a new pipeline HW architecture for fast 2-D erosions/dilations. The implementation is based on a recently proposed algorithm allowing to process 2-D data in a stream, minimizing the use of memory and drastically reducing the computing latency. These elementary operators can be chained in an efficient pipeline to realize compound morphological operators (opening, closing, ASF filters, etc.) with no intermediate image storage and minimal latency.

LDPC error correction code utilization

The paper presents a flexible construction of LDPC error correcting codes and an implementation of a code in a small microcontroller. A chosen short wordlength code was tested on the microcontroller platform and there were performed measurements focused on the error rate.

FITPix data preprocessing pipeline for the Timepix single particle pixel detector

The semiconductor pixel detector Timepix contains an array of 256 ? 256 square pixels with a pitch of 55 ?m. The single quantum counting detector Timepix can also provide information about the energy or arrival time of a particle from every single pixel. This device is a powerful tool for radiation imaging and ionizing particle tracking. The Timepix device can be read-out via a serial or parallel interface enabling speeds of 100 fps or 3200 fps, respectively. The device can be connected to a PC via the USB 2.0 based interface FITPix, which currently supports the serial output of Timepix reaching a speed of 90 fps. FITPix supports adjustable clock frequency and hardware triggering which is a useful tool for the synchronized operation of multiple devices. The FITPix interface can handle up to 16 detectors in daisy chain. The complete system including the FITPix interface and Timepix detector is controlled from the PC by the Pixelman software package. A pipeline structure is now implemented in the new version of the readout interface of FITPix. This version also supports parallel Timepix readout. The pipeline architecture brings the possibility of data preprocessing directly in the hardware. The first pipeline stage converts the raw Timepix data into the form of a matrix or stream of pixel values. Another stage performs further data processing such as event thresholding and data compression. Complex data processing currently performed by Pixelman in the PC is significantly reduced in this way. The described architecture together with the parallel readout increases data throughput reaching a higher frame-rate and reducing the dead time. Significant data compression is performed directly in the hardware especially for sparse data sets from particle tracking applications. The data frame size is typically compressed by factor of 10-100.

LHC Optics Measurement with Proton Tracks Detected by the Roman Pots of the TOTEM Experiment

Precise knowledge of the beam optics at the LHC is crucial to fulfill the physics goals of the TOTEM experiment, where the kinematics of the scattered protons is reconstructed with near-beam telescopes—so-called Roman pots (RP). Before being detected, the protons’ trajectories are influenced by the magnetic fields of the accelerator lattice. Thus precise understanding of the proton transport is of key importance for the experiment. A novel method of optics evaluation is proposed which exploits kinematical distributions of elastically scattered protons observed in the RPs. Theoretical predictions, as well as Monte Carlo studies, show that the residual uncertainty of the optics estimation method is smaller than .

LDPC code optimization based on Tanner graph mutations

The paper presents LDPC error correcting code optimization based on Tanner graph mutations. A statistical experiment focused on a heuristic LDPC code construction was performed with the genetic algorithm. The algorithm used is briefly described. Short wordlength LDPC code optimization was simulated. Results of these simulations are summarized in this paper.

Diamond detectors for the TOTEM timing upgrade

This paper describes the design and the performance of the timing detector developed by the TOTEM Collaboration for the Roman Pots (RPs) to measure the Time-Of-Flight (TOF) of the protons produced in central diffractive interactions at the LHC. The measurement of the TOF of the protons allows the determination of the longitudinal position of the proton interaction vertex and its association with one of the vertices reconstructed by the CMS detectors. The TOF detector is based on single crystal Chemical Vapor Deposition (scCVD) diamond plates and is designed to measure the protons TOF with about 50 ps time precision. This upgrade to the TOTEM apparatus will be used in the LHC run 2 and will tag the central diffractive events up to an interaction pileup of about 1. A dedicated fast and low noise electronics for the signal amplification has been developed. The digitization of the diamond signal is performed by sampling the waveform. After introducing the physics studies that will most profit from the addition of these new detectors, we discuss in detail the optimization and the performance of the first TOF detector installed in the LHC in November 2015.

Influence of electromagnetic interference on the analog part of hybrid Pixel detectors

The analog signal from the sensor of hybrid semiconductor pixel detectors is prone to electro-magnetic interference. The study and diagnosis of induced and common electro-magnetic coupling between the analog part and digital part of these devices is required. The influence of electro-magnetic interference was tested on the setup with a pixel detector Timepix or Medipix and a FITPix read-out interface. Measurements were carried out of external as well as internal interference. We evaluated the influence of both sources of electro-magnetic interference to the noise recorded by pixels. We measured the local spatial intensity distribution and frequency spectrum of the electro-magnetic field originating inside the readout chip during its own operation. In context of this test we exposed the detector chip to a locally generated artificial electro-magnetic field evaluating its sensitivity to induced interference. Consequently, the whole setup of the detector and read-out interface was exposed to a distant source of electro-magnetic radiation, during which we tested efficiency of the electro-magnetic shielding of various arrangements. Further, tests measured the coupling over power supply lines. In particular, the noise generated by the operation of the detector itself was determined. In addition, the detector sensitivity to deliberately induced noise was evaluated. By means of these tests weak points of the setup sensitive to the intrusion of electro-magnetic interference are revealed. When locations of susceptible places are identified proper methods can be applied to increase immunity of the detector setup against the electro-magnetic interference. Experiences gained are planned to be used in development of the EMI shielded version of the FITPIX interface shielded to electro-magnetic interference.