It is shown that the timing capabilities of the LHCb detector operated during the LHC Run 2 can be used to identify light ion particles with momenta of a few GeV/c. This is achieved by estimating the particle time of flight through a newly developed technique. A dedicated reconstruction procedure and a neural-network-based estimator of the particle speed have been developed to enable deuteron identification by suppressing the abundant background from lighter particles. The performance of the identification procedure is demonstrated in a sample of proton-helium collisions at sNN = 110 GeV, where the production of deuteron and triton particles is observed. This novel approach opens the way to study deuteron and antideuteron production for different collision systems at different energy scales, exploiting the rich dataset collected by the LHCb experiment.

Zunica, G., Zuliani, D., Zou, Q., Zhuo, J., Zhukov, V., Zhu, Y., et al. (2025). Deuteron identification via time of flight with LHCb. THE EUROPEAN PHYSICAL JOURNAL. C, PARTICLES AND FIELDS, 85(11) [10.1140/epjc/s10052-025-14776-9].

Deuteron identification via time of flight with LHCb

Salomoni M.;Pizzichemi M.;Moro A.;Minotti A.;Martinelli M.;Martinazzoli L.;Malentacca L.;Kirsebom V. S.;Gotti C.;Pardinas J. G.;Fazzini D.;Falcao L. N.;Carniti P.;Capelli S.;Calvi M.;Borsato M.;Anelli A.;
2025

Abstract

It is shown that the timing capabilities of the LHCb detector operated during the LHC Run 2 can be used to identify light ion particles with momenta of a few GeV/c. This is achieved by estimating the particle time of flight through a newly developed technique. A dedicated reconstruction procedure and a neural-network-based estimator of the particle speed have been developed to enable deuteron identification by suppressing the abundant background from lighter particles. The performance of the identification procedure is demonstrated in a sample of proton-helium collisions at sNN = 110 GeV, where the production of deuteron and triton particles is observed. This novel approach opens the way to study deuteron and antideuteron production for different collision systems at different energy scales, exploiting the rich dataset collected by the LHCb experiment.
Articolo in rivista - Articolo scientifico
Particle detectors; Vanadium compounds
English
19-nov-2025
2025
85
11
1329
open
Zunica, G., Zuliani, D., Zou, Q., Zhuo, J., Zhukov, V., Zhu, Y., et al. (2025). Deuteron identification via time of flight with LHCb. THE EUROPEAN PHYSICAL JOURNAL. C, PARTICLES AND FIELDS, 85(11) [10.1140/epjc/s10052-025-14776-9].
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
unpaywall-bitstream-1392343050.pdf

accesso aperto

Tipologia di allegato: Publisher’s Version (Version of Record, VoR)
Licenza: Creative Commons
Dimensione 4.28 MB
Formato Adobe PDF
4.28 MB Adobe PDF Visualizza/Apri

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10281/591241
Citazioni
  • Scopus 0
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 0
Social impact