Time-dependent readout quality control for the ALICE TPC

This project tests the readout electronics of the upgraded Time Projection Chamber (TPC) for the ALICE experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. This particle detector resides in a magnetic field and utilizes an additional electric field to achieve a three-dimensional reconstruction of a particle’s trajectory or interaction inside a sensitive gas volume. Versatile Transceivers (VTRx) are a component on the Front-End Cards that send/receive data via optical fibers. Early studies have indicated that the ‘Receive Strength Indicator (RSSI)’ data is drifting as a function of time for many of the installed VTRx, which can result in reduced data efficiency or total failure.  We report research that utilizes programming tools, proficient in time-dependent data structures, which will enable improved monitoring for vast amounts of recorded data. We show that our efficient monitoring properly documents the relevant recovery rates for the TPC readout.