Professor Tony Weidberg

Abstract:

The ionization signals in the liquid argon of the ATLAS electromagnetic calorimeter are studied in detail using cosmic muons. In particular, the drift time of the ionization electrons is measured and used to assess the intrinsic uniformity of the calorimeter gaps and estimate its impact on the constant term of the energy resolution. The drift times of electrons in the cells of the second layer of the calorimeter are uniform at the level of 1.3% in the barrel and 2.8% in the endcaps. This leads to an estimated contribution to the constant term of (0.290.04 ^0.05)% in the barrel and (0.540.04 ^0.06)% in the endcaps. The same data are used to measure the drift velocity of ionization electrons in liquid argon, which is found to be 4.61±0.07 mm/μs at 88.5 K and 1 kV/mm. © 2010 CERN for the benefit of the ATLAS collaboration.

Abstract:

More than half a million minimum-bias events of LHC collision data were collected by the ATLAS experiment in December 2009 at centre-of-mass energies of 0.9 TeV and 2.36 TeV. This paper reports on studies of the initial performance of the ATLAS detector from these data. Comparisons between data and Monte Carlo predictions are shown for distributions of several track-and calorimeter-based quantities. The good performance of the ATLAS detector in these first data gives confidence for successful running at higher energies.

Abstract:

The Tile hadronic calorimeter of the ATLAS detector has undergone extensive testing in the experimental hall since its installation in late 2005. The readout, control and calibration systems have been fully operational since 2007 and the detector has successfully collected data from the LHC single beams in 2008 and first collisions in 2009. This paper gives an overview of the Tile Calorimeter performance as measured using random triggers, calibration data, data from cosmic ray muons and single beam data. The detector operation status, noise characteristics and performance of the calibration systems are presented, as well as the validation of the timing and energy calibration carried out with minimum ionising cosmic ray muons data. The calibration systems' precision is well below the design value of 1%. The determination of the global energy scale was performed with an uncertainty of 4%. © 2010 CERN for the benefit of the ATLAS collaboration.

Abstract:

The ATLAS liquid argon calorimeter has been operating continuously since August 2006. At this time, only part of the calorimeter was readout, but since the beginning of 2008, all calorimeter cells have been connected to the ATLAS readout system in preparation for LHC collisions. This paper gives an overview of the liquid argon calorimeter performance measured in situ with random triggers, calibration data, cosmic muons, and LHC beam splash events. Results on the detector operation, timing performance, electronics noise, and gain stability are presented. High energy deposits from radiative cosmic muons and beam splash events allow to check the intrinsic constant term of the energy resolution. The uniformity of the electromagnetic barrel calorimeter response along η (averaged over Φ) is measured at the percent level using minimum ionizing cosmic muons. Finally, studies of electromagnetic showers from radiative muons have been used to cross-check the Monte Carlo simulation. The performance results obtained using the ATLAS readout, data acquisition, and reconstruction software indicate that the liquid argon calorimeter is well-prepared for collisions at the dawn of the LHC era. © 2010 CERN for the benefit of the ATLAS collaboration.

Abstract:

The ATLAS Inner Detector is a composite tracking system consisting of silicon pixels, silicon strips and straw tubes in a 2 T magnetic field. Its installation was completed in August 2008 and the detector took part in data-taking with single LHC beams and cosmic rays. The initial detector operation, hardware commissioning and in-situ calibrations are described. Tracking performance has been measured with 7. 6 million cosmic-ray events, collected using a tracking trigger and reconstructed with modular pattern-recognition and fitting software. The intrinsic hit efficiency and tracking trigger efficiencies are close to 100%. Lorentz angle measurements for both electrons and holes, specific energy-loss calibration and transition radiation turn-on measurements have been performed. Different alignment techniques have been used to reconstruct the detector geometry. After the initial alignment, a transverse impact parameter resolution of 22. 1±0. 9 μm and a relative momentum resolution σp/p=(4. 83±0. 16)×10^-4 GeV^-1×pT have been measured for high momentum tracks. © 2010 CERN for the benefit of the ATLAS collaboration.