Identifying charged hadrons on the relativistic rise using the ALICE TPC at LHC

Abstract: The chain from hadron collisions to the physics results requires several important links. First the outcome of the collision is measured by the detectors. Then, the signal from the detector is processed and transformed into information relevant for the study of the physics processes. The data is made available to physicists to be analysed and used to improve theories. This thesis presents work done on no most of these steps for the ALICE experiment at LHC. First a study of the main processes in the TPC detector for ALICE was done using simulation and test beam data. The results are shown in paper I. The study was deepened with the analysis of test beam data from a TPC prototype for the ILC, as shown in paper III. Concurrently, a study on the Grid – computing framework for distributed computing and storage resources – was performed. This involved the development of an interface module between the ALICE software AliEn and the ARC software developped in the Nordic coun- tries. This work is presented in paper II. Finally, an analysis of the particle identification capabilities of the ALICE TPC was done. Paper IV shows the results obtain from proton collisions at 7 TeV. The analysis is completed here with preliminary results on heavy ion collisions.