The TOF detector of ALICE experiment: Analysis of the first cosmic data

Abstract

— ALICE@LHC is an experiment optimized for study of heavy-ions collisions (Pb-Pb up to 5.5 ATeV). The main aim is the search for a new state of matter (called QGP) where quarks and gluons are deconfined. Particle identification is guaranteed by a set of detectors: one of these, the time-of-flight system plays an important role in the identification of charged hadrons (π, K, p) in the momentum range [0.5, 4] GeV/c. The first data-taking periods with cosmic rays have been a great chance to check the performance of the experimental apparatus and of the developed software for description, simulation, recostruction, visualization and analysis. A preliminary time resolution study on this cosmic rays data is presented.