ALICE experiment upgrades

Particle Physics explores the fundamental forces of nature and the basic constituents of matter, with the current main activities in Sweden at the high-energy frontier being experiments using the complementary ATLAS and ALICE facilities at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN.The LHC is the largest scientific instrument ever built and is of great national and world-wide interest.

Swedish LHC participation has been supported by VR/RFI on a continuous basis from the experiment design and development stages starting 30-years ago, taking data since more than 10-years, and now preparing for upgrades to the detectors for the next decades of world-leading science.The Swedish participation in LHC research comprises about 70 researchers and PhD students in 5 research groups, 4 of them active in ATLAS, and one (from Lund University) in ALICE.

There is important technical and intellectual exchange between all the research groups and universities active in LHC research.

The proposal described here, with truly novel technology for the innermost particle tracking detector in ALICE in the next upcoming LHC Long Shutdown (LS 3), is of interest to all groups active at LHC.

The new technology with detector and electronics integrated in the same silicon promises spinoff to many types of radiation detection including X-ray imaging.

For efficient technology transfer to Sweden, active participation by scientists is essential.Studies of the extremely hot and dense QCD matter state created in collisions between heavy nuclei at the LHC, will enter a new era with the ALICE upgrades, enabling detailed quantitative studies using heavy-flavor particle probes.

Long-term membership, and co-ownership of the LHC experiment infrastructure, require Swedish contributions to the experiment upgrades.

ALICE has previously received funding for minor upgrades during the LS1 and LS2 from RFI, and is now applying for support for the ALICE LS3 upgrades commensurate with the Swedish involvement in ALICE.