Performance of the Atlas Forward Proton Time-Of 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,..vtx, in the central ATLAS detector of 5.3 +/- 0.6 mm. This is in agreement with the observed width of the distribution of the difference between z(vtx) measured independently by the central ATLAS tracker and by the ToF detector, of 6.0 +/- 2.0 mm.