1. 108 Mar 2007L. Musa TPC Commissioning ALICE Technical Forum, CERN, 8 th March 2007 L. Musa Outline Pre-commissioning above ground (2006) Preparing for the commissioning in the cavern (2007)

2. 208 Mar 2007L. Musa A first phase of TPC Commissioning was carried out above ground in the course of 2006 Jan-Marinstallation of SSW and FEE April start of gas system MayHV (100KV) applied to FC Jun–Dec test of all sectors (in pairs) Each sector was operated continuously over a period of 40 hours and verified with calibration pulser, cosmic-muon trigger detector ACORDE UV laser system for the generation of tracks in the detector Many TPC and ALICE sub-systems (e.g. cooling, gating grid pulser, temperature sensors, DCS, Trigger, DAQ, HLT and Offline) have been part of this commissioning programme TPC pre-commissioning above ground (2006) ~300 man shift, 3588 runs, ~24 TB in CASTOR

3. 308 Mar 2007L. Musa Only two sectors can be instrumented at a time with –Low Voltage Power Supplies –Cooling Commissioning objectives –Test functionality of all components –gas stability, noise, signal tails, gain homogeneity, space resolution, etc. Cosmic tests Laser tests ALICE COSMIC Trigger (ACORDE) Each pair of sectors continuously operated over 40 hours TPC pre-commissioning above ground (2006)

4. 408 Mar 2007L. Musa TPC pre-commissioning (2006); some results – Noise measurements r.m.s. of the pedestals (s NOISE ) is below 1 ADC count as required in the Technical Design Report  (PASA noise 2 + ADC noise 2 ) = 0.70 ADC counts

5. 508 Mar 2007L. Musa space point resolution as function of z position (cut on inclination angle tan(f) <0.05) TDR value: 210  m /  cm A A Q total (total charge in the cluster) as function of z position  relative decrease over the full TPC length: ~7%  decrease due to electron capture and threshold effect TDR value 1% / m per ppm of O 2 3 ppm of O 2 measured with gas chromatograph B B TPC pre-commissioning (2006); some results – Cosmic tracks

6. 608 Mar 2007L. Musa Design Measured TPC pre-commissioning (2006); some results – Laser tracks Drift velocity = 2.73 cm/  m  agreement with drift monitor detector (Goofie)

7. 708 Mar 2007L. Musa Moving the TPC into the ALICE magnet  Jan ‘07 TPC has been lowered in UX25  After the alignment with respect to the beam line, the TPC has been put in parking position.  Feruary, alignment of SSW with respect to endplate, and test of the connection of FEE to the endplate (calibration pulser)  All 4356 FECs and 216 RCUs are working  All 26136 kapton cables are properly connected to the pad plane

8. 808 Mar 2007L. Musa Alignment of SSW wrt endplate within mm Readout Chamber ~7 mm X Z Y Displacements of SSW wrt endplate should not exceed 3mm Front End Card kapton cable

9. 908 Mar 2007L. Musa Preparing for Commissioning in UX25  Still some hardware components to be finalized and/or constructed. Two examples: Trigger Busy Box (being finalized and tested) Trigger&DCS Interface Unit for Laser, GG Pulser and Calibration Pulser (starting design)  Many software components to be finalized and commissioned Some examples: Software for the configuration and monitoring of the FEE Interface to the FERO database Interface to ECS DCS for some of the sub-systems and TPC FSM (Supervisory Layer) Data Quality Monitoring  In 2006 all efforts mostly devoted to pre-commissioning in SXL2

10. 1008 Mar 2007L. Musa  Cables and cooling pipes (before connecting to the TPC all cables and cooling lines will be tested)  cables from crates to backframe (C side):April  test of cables @ backframe (C side):May  Connection of TPC C sideJune  TPC wil be moved to final position (interaction point) and connected to the gas system in June (~about 1 month before reaching nominal conditions) Preparing for Commissioning in UX25  Connection of TPC A sideAug

11. 1108 Mar 2007L. Musa TPC commissioning - Milestones  Test of FEE & ROC (C-side)  Test of FEE, Trigger, DAQ, DCS and all servicesJuly  Test of ROCs July - Aug  Test of FEE & ROC (A-side)  Test of FEE, Trigger, DAQ, DCS and all serviceSep  Turn on FEEJuly  Turn on FEESep  TPC Commissioning with cosmic tracks, laserSep - Oct and Kr (under study)  ALICE Commissioning Oct -Nov