Upgrade of the COMPASS calorimetric trigger

Abstract

In 2009 COMPASS performed a short measurement of neutral Primakoff reactions, characterised by highly energetic photons in one of the two electromagnetic calorimeters. A digital trigger was implemented in the existing readout electronics which calculates the energy released in the central region of the calorimeter. In 2012 a long measurement of these processes has been performed. In order to extend the kinematic range to lower energetic photons the trigger system has been upgraded in a way to be more selective to specific physics channels. The new ADC firmware preserves hit information and provides it to newly developed backplane trigger modules. There hits from all three thousand channels are processed and the trigger decision is made.