Determination of the event collision time with the ALICE detector at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper reviews methods used in the ALICE detector at the LHC to precisely determine the event collision time, which is crucial for particle identification via the time-of-flight technique across different collision systems.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive review of the techniques for measuring collision time in ALICE, including their efficiencies and resolutions, during the first LHC data-taking period.

Findings

Methods achieve high efficiency in collision time determination.

Resolution improvements enhance particle identification separation.

Performance varies across different collision systems.

Abstract

Particle identification is an important feature of the ALICE detector at the LHC. In particular, for particle identification via the time-of-flight technique, the precise determination of the event collision time represents an important ingredient of the quality of the measurement. In this paper, the different methods used for such a measurement in ALICE by means of the T0 and the TOF detectors are reviewed. Efficiencies, resolution and the improvement of the particle identification separation power of the methods used are presented for the different LHC colliding systems (pp , p-Pb and Pb-Pb) during the first period of data taking of LHC (Run 1).