LHC interaction region upgrade

The thesis analyzes the interaction region of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). It proposes, studies and compares several upgrade options. The interaction region is the part of the LHC that hosts the particle detectors which analyze the collisions. An upgrade of the interaction region can potentially increase the number of collision events and therefore it is possible to accumulate and study a larger set of experimental data. The main object of study are the focus systems that consist of a set of magnets in charge of concentrating the particle beams in a small spot at the interaction points. The thesis uses the methods of beam optics and beam dynamics to design new interaction regions. Two design schemes are compared with a detailed analysis of the performance of several implementations. The design of the layouts takes into account the technical limitations that will affect possible realizations. Either analytical or numerical methods are used to evaluate the performance of the proposed layouts. The thesis presents new general methods that can be used for problems beyond the scope of the thesis. An analytical method has been developed for finding the intrinsic limitations of the focus systems. It allows to perform an exhaustive scan of the accessible parameter space and thus presents an efficient tool for guiding the design process. A numerical optimization routine and several enhancements have been implemented in MADX, a code for beam optics design. The routines simplify the solution of several optimization problems of beam optics.

Direct search for Higgs boson in LHCb and contribution to the development of the vertex detector

Laurent Locatelli

The LHCb experiment (Large Hadron Collider beauty) is one of the four experiments under construction at the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) at CERN near Geneva. It is planned to start in 2007 and its goal is the study of b-quark physics. The LHC is a circular accelerator in which collide protons-protons at a center-of-mass energy of √s = 14 TeV. This generates a large number of high energy bb pairs which are predominantly produced in the same forward cone. The LHCb detector is therefore a forward single arm spectrometer designed to exploit the large bb production cross section (σbb ~ 500 μb) and to perform precise measurements of CP violation in b-hadrons decays. One of the actual greatest challenges in High Energy Physics is the discovery of the Higgs boson which is responsible for the Model Standard particles mass generation through the Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking process. The Higgs mass is not known and cannot be predicted by the theory. However the recent results of LEP at CERN have shown that mH0 > 114 GeV/c2. Below ~ 150 GeV/c2 the Higgs decay into two b-quarks H0 → bb dominates. The two quarks emitted back-to-back in the H0 rest frame form a string which fragments, giving rise to hadronization in jets containing b-hadrons. The aim of this thesis is to assess the feasibility to discover a Higgs boson with intermediate mass at LHCb by using the detector sensibility to b-hadrons in order to reconstruct these jets using jets reconstruction algorithms. The study is focused on the mechanisms in which the Higgs boson is produced in association with a gauge boson decaying leptonically H0 + W± → bb + ℓνℓ and H0 + Z0 → bb + ℓ+ℓ- for Higgs masses in the range 100 - 130 GeV/c2. The gauge bosons decay produces hard leptons quite often isolated from the b-jets. Hence an isolated lepton with high transverse momentum is required in order to reject the large QCD background. Several important background channels which also provide two b-quarks and an isolated lepton – like tt → W+b W-b, Z0 + W± → bb + ℓνℓ, Z0 + Z0 → bb + ℓ+ℓ-, W± + b-jets, Z0 + b-jets and generic bb – are studied in parallel. The idea is to find observables which behave differently for backgrounds and Higgs signal and to exploit these differences in the framework of a neural network, precisely in order to discriminate background from signal. The LHCb experiment needs a high capability to identify b-hadrons despite their very short lifetime τB ~ 1.5 · 10-12 s. The Vertex Locator (VeLo) is a sub-detector placed around the p-p interaction point which has to provide accurate measurements of the b-hadrons production and decay points by reconstructing secondary vertices. The second part of this thesis is a technical contribution to the development of the VeLo analogue transmission line. It consists in testing several hardware and software methods to improve the VeLo analogue transmission between the on-detector part of the readout and the off-detector electronics. Because the ~ 60 m line introduces an important attenuation, several cables and line drivers configurations with frequency and gain compensation are studied in order to obtain the best results in terms of signal-to-noise ratio and channel crosstalk. The different contributions to the noise are also studied and an estimation of the contribution due to the Beetle pipeline non-uniformity is given in order to see if a specific correction is needed or if it can be suppressed by a standard common noise correction procedure.

EPFL2007

A study of beam-beam effects in hadron colliders with a large number of bunches

Tatiana Pieloni

A particle beam is a collection of a large number of charges and represents an electromagnetic potential for other charges, therefore exerting forces on itself (space charge) and other beams (Beam-Beam Interactions, BBIs). The control of the BBIs in particle colliders is fundamental to preserve beam stability and achieve the optimum collider performance. In the case of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, these forces are experienced as localized periodic distortions when the two beams cross each other in the four experimental areas. The forces are most important for high density beams, i.e. high intensity and small beam sizes. Each LHC beam is composed of 2808 bunches, each containing 1011 protons and with a transverse size of 16 µm at the interaction points. These extreme parameters are the key to obtain high "luminosity", i.e. the number of collisions per second needed to study \rare" physics phenomena. The BBI is therefore often the limiting factor for the luminosity of colliders. Within all BB effects, this thesis covers coherent and incoherent beam-beam effects in hadron colliders with particular emphasis on those with a large number of bunches, like the LHC. Complementary numerical tools have been developed to study the effects of BBIs on the particle beams. The use of new parallel algorithms was fundamental to allow the scale of the calculations. The objectives are a better understanding of these effects and if necessary to propose changes to the LHC beam parameters to keep detrimental effects small. We have demonstrated the numerical predictibility of bunch to bunch differences and for the first time compared the results to analytical predictions and experimental data from the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). Beam-beam transfer function measurements had been reproduced and understood in terms of coherent beam-beam modes. An implementation of the measurement devices had been suggested in order to avoid misinterpreted diagnostics. An emittance growth caused by the BBIs had been observed and characterized with numerical studies and explained with a simple physical picture. A study of the parametrical dependency of this effect defines qualitatively the expected limiting factors to avoid detrimental deterioration of the beams. The variation of the LHC tune spectra for different collision symmetries and in the presence of long range as well as head-on collisions had been presented and explained. This will be of fundamental importance to correctly interprete the observations of single bunch measurements during the operation of the collider and to improve the performances.

EPFL2008

Direct search for Higgs boson in LHCb and contribution to the development of the vertex detector

Laurent Locatelli

EPFL2007

A study of beam-beam effects in hadron colliders with a large number of bunches

Tatiana Pieloni

EPFL2008