Speaker
Description
The ALICE collaboration is proposing a new apparatus, ALICE 3, to investigate the Quark Gluon Plasma properties for the LHC Runs 5 and 6. The measurements planned to address ALICE 3 physics goals require to identify charged particles over eight units of pseudorapidity ($|\eta|<4$) and to achieve a better than 3$\sigma$ $e$/$\pi$, $\pi$/$K$ and $K$/$p$ separation up to above 2 GeV/$c$, 10 GeV/$c$ and 16 GeV/$c$, respectively. In this context, studies for the development a Ring Imaging Cherenkov (RICH) detector are ongoing. The state of art detector concept for the ALICE 3 barrel ($|\eta|<2$) RICH consists in a proximity-focusing layout, using aerogel ($n$ = 1.03 at $\lambda$ = 400 nm) as Cherenkov radiator and a layer of Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs) for the photon detection. A first small-scale prototype
was successfully tested on beam in October 2022 and 2023. The barrel RICH specifications and expected performance, as well as beam test results will be presented.
