We present the FP420 R&D project, which has been studying
the key aspects of the development and installation of a silicon
tracker and fast-timing detectors in the LHC tunnel at 420 m from
the interaction points of the ATLAS and CMS experiments. These
detectors would measure precisely very forward protons in
conjunction with the corresponding central detectors as a means to
study Standard Model (SM) physics, and to search for and
characterise new physics signals. This report includes a detailed
description of the physics case for the detector and, in particular,
for the measurement of Central Exclusive Production, pp→p+ϕ+p, in which the outgoing protons remain intact and the
central system ϕ may be a single particle such as a SM or MSSM
Higgs boson. Other physics topics discussed are γγ and
γp interactions, and diffractive processes. The report
includes a detailed study of the trigger strategy, acceptance,
reconstruction efficiencies, and expected yields for a particular
pp→pHp measurement with Higgs boson decay in the
bb̄ mode. The document also describes the detector
acceptance as given by the LHC beam optics between the interaction
points and the FP420 location, the machine backgrounds, the new
proposed connection cryostat and the moving (``Hamburg'') beam-pipe
at 420 m, and the radio-frequency impact of the design on the
LHC. The last part of the document is devoted to a description of
the 3D silicon sensors and associated tracking performances, the
design of two fast-timing detectors capable of accurate vertex
reconstruction for background rejection at high-luminosities, and
the detector alignment and calibration strategy.
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