The FoCaL Detector of ALICE at the LHC

CERN (European Center for Nuclear Research) is a global laboratory that studies proton and heavy ion collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) is one of four large experiments at the LHC. ALICE is dedicated to studying the transition of matter to Quark-Gluon Plasma in heavy ion collisions. The experiment is currently taking data in Run 3, and preparing for upgrades after the third long shutdown (LS3) in 2025-26. To this end, ALICE is undertaking an initiative to extend its physics capabilities. Among these improvements is the Forward Calorimeter (FoCal). The Forward Calorimeter is a highly granular electromagnetic calorimeter combined with a conventional sampling hadronic calorimeter. The primary objectives of the FoCal are to obtain high-precision measurements of direct photons and jets, as well as coincident gamma-jet and jet-jet measurements. This presentation will describe the FoCal detector, its capabilities, and the results from particular performance simulations.