Real-Time Data Quality Monitoring System for the CMS Muon GEM Detector at the LHC

Abstract

The new operational conditions associated with the high luminosity upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN requires an upgrade of the muon system in the forward region of the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector. The upgrade will allow the detector to record and handle a higher rate of particles. A major element of this upgrade is the implementation of new gas electron multiplier (GEM) detectors in the pseudorapidity region 1.6 < eta < 2.4, where the background particle rates are highest. These detectors will add redundancy to the existing muon system in this region, and improve performance by allowing more intelligent triggering algorithms to reduce the trigger rate. The data acquisition electronics on these detectors must be thoroughly tested to verify that the data produced by the detector is valid, and that there are no hardware or firmware problems before the GEMs are installed underground in CMS. Once installed, the system must also be monitored to verify that no problems arise during normal data-taking operations. I discuss the software being developed to read out and process the data produced by the detectors, and the methods used to identify hardware and firmware problems using this information in real time.