LHCb: Beam and Background Monitoring and the Development of an Online Condition Analysis Tool for the LHCb Experiment at CERN

The LHCb experiment has been taking data since more than half a year at the LHC, recording events from collisions at the highest energy ever achieved. For its physics purposes in the sector of CP violation, the experiment will record data with the best precision achievable. An online and offline beam and background monitoring became therefore essential to understand the performance of the LHC accelerator at CERN, to monitor and study the behavior of the background around the LHCb experiment and to optimize the experimental conditions. During my second year as a Doctoral Student at CERN, I have been working on the timing and readout control as well as on the online Beam, Background, and Luminosity Monitoring of the LHCb experiment in the frame of the LHCb Online group. The group is responsible for the complete data acquisition of the LHCb experiment, from the Front-End Electronics (FEE) to the storage of the data for offline analysis, including the Timing and Fast Control (TFC) system. The latter controls and distributes centrally timing and trigger information to the electronics, and performs the entire synchronous readout control and event management up to the Event Filter Farm. It is also responsible for receiving and adjusting the bunch and orbit clocks of the LHC machine and distributing it to the electronics of the whole experiment. I have implemented a Beam Phase and Intensity Monitor (BPIM) because it became essential to maintain the LHCb experiment in perfect timing (within +/- 500ps) with the arrival of the beams. The same electronics board developed for the BPIM has been used to develop a high-speed and high-sensitivity readout system for a scintillator background monitor (Beam Loss Scintillator, BLS). This records fast beam losses with time information and records rates of losses. In addition I have been able to implement and show that it can function as a counter of the delivered luminosity online. I am responsible for both of these systems. In addition, the complexity and extreme parameters of the LHC required the development of a tool for analyzing experimental conditions. In the short Technical Stop at the beginning of this year I developed an advanced tool in PVSS within the framework of the Experimental Control System of LHCb. It allows experts and shifters to analyze LHCb running conditions and beam and background parameters in an online and offline way, quickly, with high flexibility and completeness. This played an important role in the first weeks of operation at LHCb. In addition this tool now also provides the daily complete Run Summaries for internal usage in LHCb as well as for the LHC Program Coordinator.