CMS is looking forward: boosting CMS capability for forward physics in HL-LHC

5 May 2026, 15:30
20m
Sala GIOVE B, Ground Floor (Hotel Carlton)

Sala GIOVE B, Ground Floor

Hotel Carlton

Talk WG6 Current Upgrades and Future Experiments WG6 Current upgrades and future experiments

Speaker

Michael Pitt (CERN)

Description

For LHC Run 4, CMS has planned substantial upgrades to enhance its forward-physics capabilities in proton–proton and heavy-ion collisions. To exploit the full potential of the HL-LHC datasets, a radiation-hard Zero-Degree Calorimeter and an upgraded Precision Proton Spectrometer, with new optics and improved high-pileup performance, have been designed. Following successful tests during Run 3 heavy-ion data taking, prospects for instrumenting the very-forward region with new forward scintillator counters covering $6<\eta<8$ are also being explored. In addition, the timing detector, by providing hadron PID down to low $p_T$ across a wide pseudorapidity range, will further enhance CMS’s capability to study photon-induced light and heavy-flavor probes with the highest experimental accuracy. This talk reviews the physics reach enabled by the upgrade program — from precision photonuclear and diffractive measurements in proton–proton, proton–ion, and ion–ion collisions to enhanced sensitivity for targeted BSM searches — and summarizes the detector specifications and implementation plans. We will also describe how these upgrades, together with enhanced L1 tracking triggers, extend the triggering and selection capabilities for UPC heavy-ion collisions.

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