EXOTIC PHYSICS AT THE LHC WITH CASTOR IN CMS

Abstract

Cosmic-rays sometimes produce showers of unusual composition that contain particles with energy-loss profiles different from all known particles. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will produce, for the first time, nuclear collisions at the extremely high energy characteristic of the cosmic-ray events. The CASTOR detector, a part of the huge CMS experiment, is designed for detailed studies of the products corresponding to the cores of cosmic-ray showers. It will cover angles of 0.1° to 0.7° from the beam. It will be divided azimuthally into 16 segments and longitudinally into 18 segments. It is assumed that cosmic ray showers are caused by nuclei, protons through iron, hitting the atmosphere. If CASTOR does not find events that can be identified with the anomalous cosmic-ray events, this assumption may need to be reconsidered. Pb - Pb collisions with the LHC will have an energy 28 times that of Au - Au collisions studied at RHIC. With this huge increase in energy a wealth of new phenomena is almost assured. Because of the much larger mass number, Pb - Pb events can be expected to show exotic phenomena that is beyond the reach of cosmic rays.