ALICE FoCal
FoCal detector layout
The forward electromagnetic and hadronic calorimeter (FoCal) is an upgrade to the ALICE experiment, to be installed during LS3 for data-taking in LHC Run 4 (2029–2032) at the LHC. The FoCal is a highly granular Si+W electromagnetic (FoCal-E) calorimeter combined with a conventional sampling hadronic (FoCal-H) calorimeter covering pseudorapidities of 3.4 < η < 5.8. The FoCal provides unique capabilities to measure small-x gluon distributions via prompt photon production and will significantly enhance the scope of ALICE for inclusive and correlation measurements with mesons, photons, and jets to explore the dynamics of hadronic matter at small-x down to about 10-6. It is also expected to elucidate the existence of the Color Glass Condensate (CGC), which describes the dynamics of very densely populated gluon states at very small momentum fraction x in the nucleus and is expected to be important for the early stages of the formation of the Quark-Gluon Plasma in heavy-ion collisions.
FoCal-E Design:
FoCal-H Design:
FoCal module test at CERN PS in June 2022:
- Letter of Intent: A Forward Calorimeter (FoCal) in the ALICE experiment
- EP Newsletter: Towards a FoCal for the ALICE experiment