The TOTEM nT2 detector: architecture, operation and performance

TL;DR

The paper describes the design, implementation, and initial performance results of the nT2 detector at the LHC, optimized for rapid installation and operation in high-radiation environments during the 2023 special run.

Contribution

It introduces a novel radiation-tolerant, quickly deployable detector architecture based on plastic scintillators and SiPMs, with integrated fault-tolerant electronics for LHC measurements.

Findings

Successful deployment within 10-20 minutes

Effective operation in high-radiation environment

Preliminary performance results are promising

Abstract

The TOTEM experiment at the LHC has produced a large set of measurements on diffractive processes and pp cross sections. A new detector, called nT2, has been designed to measure the inelastic scattering rate during the LHC special run of 2023. Due to the high radiation environment, the detector had to be installed in 10-20 minutes at most, then commissioned and operated after only few days. The detector, based on plastic scintillators read out by matrices of SiPMs, was designed with such constraints in mind. The front-end, DAQ and control electronics was developed with a fault tolerant architecture, moving as many functionalities as possible on a radiation tolerant SoC FPGA, hosting an integrated ARM controller. Here we will describe the nT2 detector and its read-out and control electronics. The detector was successfully operated during the special run: we will report the preliminary results on the detector performance.