Speaker
Description
In this talk, we will present the latest results of the prototyping phase of the high-granularity
forward calorimeter (FoCal) of the ALICE experiment. This novel detector is part of the upgrade
project that ALICE will undergo during the LHC long shutdown scheduled for 2027 and lasting
until 2029. FoCal is a new generation forward calorimeter, designed to cover a pseudorapidity
acceptance between 3.4 and 5.8 units and provide unique capabilities in probing non-linear
QCD dynamics in unexplored regions at low Bjorken x and Q^2. The electromagnetic
components of the FoCal integrates two different detector technologies: a stack of 20 layers of
Si (18 pads and 2 pixel layers ) interleaved with tungsten to reconstruct the EM shower deposit
with a size of 1cm2 , as well as two layers of Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (MAPs) placed in a
strategic position for tracking the shower development and provide ~mm discrimination between
direct photons and photons coming from decaying mesons. The system is complemented by a
transversally segmented SciFi calorimeter for photon isolation and Jet reconstruction. The
detector prototypes were extensively tested, and the analyzed results are currently being
organized in a dedicated publication and will be part of the FoCal Technical Design Report
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