Beam-test evaluation of the precision timing capabilities of a CMS HGCAL prototype

The existing CMS endcap calorimeters will be replaced by a High Granularity Calorimeter (HGCAL) for operation at the High Luminosity (HL) LHC which will start in 2027. Radiation hardness and excellent physics performance will be achieved by utilising silicon pad sensors and SiPM-on-scintillator tiles with high transverse and longitudinal segmentation. One of the major challenges of the HL-LHC will be the high pile-up environment meaning overlapping interactions, with interaction vertices spread in position and time. In order to efficiently reject particles originating from pile-up, precision timing information of the order of 30 ps for a full shower will be of great benefit. In order to meet such performance goals, the HGCAL will provide timing measurements for individual hits with signals above 12 fC, equivalent to 3-10 Minimum Ionising Particles (MIPs), such that clusters resulting from particles with pT > 5 GeV should have a timing resolution better than 30ps.In order to assess the technical feasibility and physics performance of such a design, beam tests were performed with a prototype of HGCAL silicon modules at the CERN SPS. We present the detector and DAQ components related to the precision timing evaluation, as well as calibration techniques and preliminary results on the timing performance.