The FAIR Phase 0 program of the CBM TOF

TL;DR

The paper discusses the development and testing of high-rate MRPC-based Time-of-Flight detectors for particle identification in the upcoming CBM experiment and related FAIR Phase-0 physics programs, highlighting technological advancements and operational readiness.

Contribution

It introduces the FAIR Phase 0 MRPC TOF system, demonstrating its capability to operate at high fluxes and its integration into existing experiments for physics research and detector development.

Findings

Successful operation of MRPC detectors at fluxes up to 30 kHz/cm².

Implementation of MRPC technology in STAR and mCBM experiments for high-rate physics.

Gaining operational experience for the future CBM TOF wall with about 1500 detectors.

Abstract

In order to provide particle identification (PID) of charged hadrons at the future high-rate Compressed Baryonic Matter (CBM) experiment the TOF group has developed a large-area Time-of-Flight (ToF) wall equipped with Multi-gap Resistive Plate Chambers (MRPC) capable to operate at incident particle fluxes of up to 30 kHz/cm$^2$. Prior to its destined operation at the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) - starting in 2025 - this high-rate timing MRPC technology will be used for physics research at two scientific pillars of the FAIR Phase-0 program: the end-cap TOF upgrade of the STAR experiment at RHIC and the mTOF wall of the mCBM experiment at SIS18. At STAR, the fixed-target program of the Beam Energy Scan II (BES-II) will rely on 108 CBM MRPC detectors for forward PID at trigger rates of up to 2 kHz. At mCBM, high-performance benchmark runs of Lambda-baryon production at top SIS18 energies and CBM design interaction rates of 10 MHz will become feasible with a PID backbone consisting of 25 CBM MRPC detectors. Apart from the physics perspective, these pre-FAIR involvements will help gathering experience in operating the final CBM TOF wall comprising about 1500 MRPC detectors and 110,000 readout channels. The status of the FAIR phase 0 program will be discussed.