The winter technical stop saw the final steps of the installation of the TOTEM experiment at the LHC. After 8 years of development, the two arms of the inelastic telescope T1 were successfully installed inside the CMS endcap at about 10.5 m on either side of the interaction point. This detector joins the previously installed telescope T2 (at 13.5 m), as well as detectors in two sets of Roman Pots at 147 m and 220 m. Additional detectors at 147 m were also installed in the shutdown.
TOTEM is designed to make precise measurements of the total proton–proton cross-section and to perform detailed studies of elastic and diffractive proton–proton scattering. It requires dedicated runs of the LHC at low luminosities to allow the movable Roman Pots to bring detectors as close to the beam as possible.
