Performance of the ATLAS forward proton Time-of-Flight detector in Run 2

Abstract

We present performance studies of the Time-of-Flight (ToF) subdetector of the ATLAS Forward Proton (AFP) detector at the LHC. Efficiencies and resolutions are measured using high-statistics data samples collected at low and moderate pile-up in 2017, the first year when the detectors were installed on both sides of the interaction region. While low efficiencies are observed, of the order of a few percent, the resolutions of the two ToF detectors measured individually are 21 ps and 28 ps, yielding an expected resolution of the longitudinal position of the interaction, \( z_{\text{vtx}} \), in the central ATLAS detector of \( 5.3 \pm 0.6 \) mm. This is in agreement with the observed width of the distribution of the difference between \( z_{\text{vtx}} \), measured independently by the central ATLAS tracker and by the ToF detector, of \( 6.0 \pm 2.0 \) mm.