Future Upgrade and Physics Perspectives of the ALICE TPC

TL;DR

The paper discusses the planned upgrade of the ALICE TPC detector at the LHC, focusing on continuous readout technology and improved detector performance to enhance physics research capabilities in future runs.

Contribution

It presents the development and testing of a new MPGD-based readout system for the ALICE TPC, enabling ungated operation and higher trigger rates.

Findings

Successful R&D with GEM and Micromegas technologies.

Simulation results for space-charge distortion corrections.

Projected detector performance improvements.

Abstract

The ALICE experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) proposes major detector upgrades to fully exploit the increase of the luminosity of the LHC in RUN~3 and to extend the physics reach for rare probes at low transverse momentum. The Time Projection Chamber (TPC) is one of the main tracking and PID devices in the central barrel of ALICE. The maximum trigger rate of the TPC is currently limited to about 3.5 kHz by the operation of a gating grid system. In order to make full use of the luminosity in RUN 3, the TPC is foreseen to be operated in an ungated mode with continuous readout. The existing MWPC readout will be replaced by a Micro-Pattern Gaseous Detector (MPGD) based readout, which provides intrinsic ion capture capability without gating. Extensive detector R\&D employing Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) and Micro-Mesh Gaseous detector (Micromegas) technologies, and simulation studies to advance the techniques for the corrections of space-charge distortions have been performed since 2012. In this paper, the expected detector performance and the status of the R\&D program to achieve this ambitious goal are described.