Efficiency of finding muon track trigger primitives in CMS cathode strip chambers

In the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment, muon detection in the forward direction is accomplished by cathode strip chambers (CSC). These detectors identify muons, provide a fast muon trigger, and give a precise measurement of the muon trajectory. There are 468 six-plane CSCs in the system. The efficiency of finding muon trigger primitives (muon track segments) was studied using 36 CMS CSCs and cosmic ray muons during the Magnet Test and Cosmic Challenge (MTCC) exercise conducted by the CMS experiment in 2006. In contrast to earlier studies that used muon beams to illuminate a very small chamber area (< 0.01 m²), results presented in this paper were obtained by many installed CSCs operating in situ over an area of ≈ 23 m² as a part of the CMS experiment. The efficiency of finding two-dimensional trigger primitives within six-layer chambers was found to be 99.93 ± 0.03 %. These segments, found by the CSC electronics within 800 ns after the passing of a muon through the chambers, are the input information for the Level-1 muon trigger and, also, are a necessary condition for chambers to be read out by the Data Acquisition System.