NSF-BSF: Collaborative Research: Development of Very Radiation Hard Zero Degree Calorimeters for the LHC

位于瑞士的欧洲核子研究中心实验室的大型强子对撞机(LHC)正在进行升级，以便将束碰撞的次数增加到LHC设计值的十分之一。增加的辐射将损坏许多现有的探测器，因此必须设计和建造新的探测器。该奖项支持不同原型设计的开发，经过广泛的测试，最佳设计将成为ATLAS和CMS实验的通用设计。ATLAS和CMS实验是目前安装在大型强子对撞机上的两个最大的实验。原型将在以色列的索雷克核研究中心和伊利诺伊州的费米国家加速器实验室进行测试。该项目有一个强有力的计划，以吸引来自不同社区的本科生参与这些新探测器的开发。在拟议的活动中开发的技术可能会应用于其他科学领域，如辐射肿瘤学和空间科学。为了充分利用大型强子对撞机，它独特地获得了由经过的强子的电磁场产生的高能光子，并且前所未有地获得了这些光子探测到的低x部分子，为了充分利用大型强子对撞机，实验需要零度热量计(ZDC)。ZDC注定将在大型强子对撞机的高光度时代使用，这将在下一次长时间关闭后开始。在高光度时代，发光度将超过7x10^34/cm^2/秒，因此ZDC必须具有极强的抗辐射能力。ZDC是在重离子碰撞中识别反应面方向所必需的，并且是测量重离子和p-p碰撞中超周边碰撞的重要探测器。光子-光子和光子-原子核的相互作用允许观测极其罕见的过程，例如光与光的散射，这些过程对新的未观察到的物理过程具有潜在的敏感性，并提供了一个干净的穿透原子核的探测器。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the CERN laboratory in Switzerland is being upgraded to increase the number of beam collisions by a factor of ten beyond the LHC's design value. The increased radiation will damage many of the existing detectors, so new detectors have to be designed and built. This award supports the development of different prototype designs and, after extensive testing, the best design will become the common design for both the ATLAS and CMS experiments. The ATLAS and CMS experiments are the two largest experiments currently mounted at the LHC. The prototypes will be tested at the Soreq Nuclear Research Center in Israel and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois. The project has a robust plan in place to engage undergraduate students from a diverse community to participate in the development of these new detectors. The technology developed in the proposed activities may have applications in other areas of science such as radiation oncology and space science.To take full advantage of the LHC, with its unique access to high energy photons caused by the electromagnetic fields of the passing hadrons, and unprecedented access to low-x partons probed by these photons, the experiments need Zero Degree Calorimeters (ZDCs). The ZDCs are destined to be used at the LHC during the high luminosity era which starts after the next Long Shutdown. Luminosities will exceed 7x10^34 /cm^2/sec in the high luminosity era and so the ZDCs must be extraordinarily radiation hard. ZDCs are needed to identify the reaction plane orientation in a heavy ion collision and are an essential detector for measuring ultra-peripheral collisions in heavy ion and p-p collisions. The photon-photon and photon-nucleus interactions allow observations of extremely rare processes, such as light-by-light scattering, which are potentially sensitive to new unobserved physics processes and provide a clean penetrating probe of the nucleus.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.