Energy reconstruction and calibration algorithms for the ATLAS electromagnetic calorimeter

The work of this thesis is devoted to the study, development and optimization of the algorithms of energy reconstruction and calibration for the electromagnetic calorimeter (EMC) of the ATLAS experiment, presently under installation and commissioning at the CERN Large Hadron Collider in Geneva (Switzerland). A deep study of the electrical characteristics of the detector and of the signals formation and propagation is conduced: an electrical model of the detector is developed and analyzed through simulations; a hardware model (mock-up) of a group of the EMC readout cells has been built, allowing the direct collection and properties study of the signals emerging from the EMC cells. We analyze the existing multiple-sampled signal reconstruction strategy, showing the need of an improvement in order to reach the advertised performances of the detector. The optimal filtering reconstruction technique is studied and implemented, taking into account the differences between the ionization and calibration waveforms as emerging from the mock-up analysis. A new calibration procedure that does not need any informations from the ionization signals as collected from the physics events in the EMC is proposed; its feasibility is investigated and discussed.