A beam-beam monitoring detector for the MPD experiment at NICA

TL;DR

This paper proposes a high granularity beam-beam monitoring detector for the MPD experiment at NICA, aiming to improve trigger capabilities and reaction plane determination in heavy-ion collision studies.

Contribution

Introduction of a novel high granularity beam-beam detector with 30 ps time resolution to enhance MPD's trigger and reaction plane measurements.

Findings

Simulated event plane resolution improvement demonstrated.

Prototype time resolution tested at CERN PS.

Redundancy in event plane determination confirmed.

Abstract

The Multi-Purpose Detector (MPD) is to be installed at the Nuclotron Ion Collider fAcility (NICA) of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR). Its main goal is to study the phase diagram of the strongly interacting matter produced in heavy-ion collisions. These studies, while providing insight into the physics of heavy-ion collisions, are relevant for improving our understanding of the evolution of the early Universe and the formation of neutron stars. In order to extend the MPD trigger capabilities, we propose to include a high granularity beam-beam monitoring detector (BE-BE) to provide a level-0 trigger signal with an expected time resolution of 30 ps. This new detector will improve the determination of the reaction plane by the MPD experiment, a key measurement for flow studies that provides physics insight into the early stages of the reaction. In this work, we use simulated Au+Au collisions at NICA energies to show the potential of such a detector to determine the event plane resolution, providing further redundancy to the detectors originally considered for this purpose namely, the Fast Forward Detector (FFD) and the Hadron Calorimeter (HCAL). We also show our results for the time resolution studies of two prototype cells carried out at the T10 beam line at the CERN PS complex.