BTeV Level 1 Vertex Trigger

TL;DR

The paper discusses the design and implementation of a Level 1 vertex trigger for the BTeV experiment, aimed at detecting heavy quark decays by identifying secondary vertices in real-time at the Fermilab Tevatron.

Contribution

It introduces a novel first-level vertex trigger system combining hardware and software to efficiently identify heavy quark decay signatures in high-rate collider data.

Findings

Successful development of a real-time vertex trigger prototype

Enhanced sensitivity to CP violation and rare decays

Potential for improved heavy quark physics measurements

Abstract

BTeV is a $B$-physics experiment that expects to begin collecting data at the C0 interaction region of the Fermilab Tevatron in the year 2006. Its primary goal is to achieve unprecedented levels of sensitivity in the study of CP violation, mixing, and rare decays in $b$ and $c$ quark systems. In order to realize this, it will employ a state-of-the-art first-level vertex trigger (Level 1) that will look at every beam crossing to identify detached secondary vertices that provide evidence for heavy quark decays. This talk will briefly describe the BTeV detector and trigger, focus on the software and hardware aspects of the Level 1 vertex trigger, and describe work currently being done in these areas.