![HEP2026: 42nd Conference on Recent Developments in High Energy Physics and Cosmology [NTUA] Jul 8 – 11, 2026](/event/1654737/logo-1929213524.png){kind=logo}
Speaker
Description
During the second long shutdown of the LHC at CERN, the most important Phase-1 upgrade within the ATLAS experiment was the replacement of the two inner endcap stations of the Muon Spectrometer with the New Small Wheels (NSW), in preparation for the High-Luminosity period (HL-LHC). The NSW consists of two novel detector technologies, the MicroMesh Gaseous Structure (Micromegas/MMG) and the small-strip Thin Gap Chambers (sTGC). Although MMG detectors are primarily used for tracking and sTGCs for triggering, the two technologies are complementary. Therefore, as an integrated detector system, the NSW provides excellent muon tracking and triggering performance, contributing to the high-precision identification of muons originating from the interaction
point.
Due to NSW complexity and the need for long-term operation, a sophisticated Detector Control System (DCS) has been developed. After four years of data-taking, the NSW DCS has supported successfully the daily operation of the detector. At the same time and based on the users’ experience, new tools and automated mechanisms were developed to improve the NSW DCS performance. In parallel, three development set-ups were established to investigate different parameters affecting the detector performance. The first one, dedicated to MMG, used to study the detector response under high-flux photon irradiation and different detector configurations in comparison with the MMG detectors used in the ATLAS experiment. The rest are used to facilitate the sTGC HV failure mitigation strategy.
The first part of the presentation will focus on the new tools and automated mechanisms developed to improve the performance and operational stability of the ATLAS NSW DCS, while the second part presents the implementation of the DCS in experimental setups aimed at optimizing the operation and long-term performance of the ATLAS NSW detector system.