The TOTEM DAQ based on the Scalable Readout System (SRS)

The TOTEM (TOTal cross section, Elastic scattering and diffraction dissociation Measurement at the LHC) experiment at LHC, has been designed to measure the total proton-proton cross-section and study the elastic and diffractive scattering at the LHC energies. In order to cope with the increased machine luminosity and the higher statistic required by the extension of the TOTEM physics program, approved for the LHC’s Run Two phase, the previous VME based data acquisition system has been replaced with a new one based on the Scalable Readout System. The system features an aggregated data throughput of 2GB / s towards the online storage system. This makes it possible to sustain a maximum trigger rate of ∼ 24kHz, to be compared with the 1KHz rate of the previous system. The trigger rate is further improved by implementing zero-suppression and second-level hardware algorithms in the Scalable Readout System. The new system fulfils the requirements for an increased efficiency, providing higher bandwidth, and increasing the purity of the data recorded. Moreover full compatibility has been guaranteed with the legacy front-end hardware, as well as with the DAQ interface of the CMS experiment and with the LHC’s Timing, Trigger and Control distribution system. In this contribution we describe in detail the architecture of full system and its performance measured during the commissioning phase at the LHC Interaction Point.

Large Rapidity Gap Method to Select Soft Diffraction Dissociation at the LHC

In proton-proton (pp) collisions, any process involves exchanging the vacuum quantum numbers is known as diffractive process. A diffractive process with no largeQ2is called soft diffractive process. The diffractive processes are important for understanding nonperturbative QCD effects and they also constitute a significant fraction of the total pp cross section. The diffractive events are typically characterized by a region of the detector without particles, known as a rapidity gap. In order to observe diffractive events in this way, we consider the pseudorapidity acceptance in the forward region of the ATLAS and CMS detectors at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and discuss the methods to select soft diffractive dissociation for pp collisions ats=7 TeV. It is shown that, in the limited detector rapidity acceptance, it is possible to select diffractive dissociation events by requiring a rapidity gap in the event; however, without using forward detectors, it seems not possible to fully separate single and double diffractive dissociation events. The Zero Degree Calorimeters can be used to distinguish the type of the diffractive processes up to a certain extent.

The Higgs mass derived from the U(3) Lie group

The Higgs mass value is derived from a Hamiltonian on the Lie group U(3) where we relate strong and electroweak energy scales. The baryon states of nucleon and delta resonances originate in specific Bloch wave degrees of freedom coupled to a Higgs mechanism which also gives rise to the usual gauge boson masses. The derived Higgs mass is around 125 GeV. From the same Hamiltonian, we derive the relative neutron to proton mass ratio and the N and Delta mass spectra. All compare rather well with the experimental values. We predict scarce neutral flavor baryon singlets that should be visible in scattering cross-sections for negative pions on protons, in photoproduction on neutrons, in neutron diffraction dissociation experiments and in invariant mass spectra of protons and negative pions in B-decays. The fundamental predictions are based on just one length scale and the fine structure constant. More particular predictions rely also on the weak mixing angle and the up–down quark flavor mixing matrix element. With differential forms on the measure-scaled wave function, we could generate approximate parton distribution functions for the u and d valence quarks of the proton that compare well with established experimental analysis.