Measurements of charged pion and kaon production in central PbϩPb collisions at 40, 80, and 158 A GeV are presented. These are compared with data at lower and higher energies as well as with results from pϩp interactions. The mean pion multiplicity per wounded nucleon increases approximately linearly with s NN 1/4 with a change of slope starting in the region 15-40 A GeV. The change from pion suppression with respect to p ϩp interactions, as observed at low collision energies, to pion enhancement at high energies occurs at about 40A GeV. A nonmonotonic energy dependence of the ratio of K ϩ to ϩ yields is observed, with a maximum close to 40A GeV and an indication of a nearly constant value at higher energies. The measured dependences may be related to an increase of the entropy production and a decrease of the strangeness to entropy ratio in central PbϩPb collisions in the low SPS energy range, which is consistent with the hypothesis that a transient state of deconfined matter is created above these energies. Other interpretations of the data are also discussed.

Pseudorapidity (η) distributions of charged particles produced in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV are measured in the ranges |η| < 2.2 and 5.3 < |η| < 6.4 covered by the CMS and TOTEM detectors, respectively. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of L = 45 µb −1 . Measurements are presented for three event categories. The most inclusive category is sensitive to 91-96 % of the total inelastic proton-proton cross section. The other two categories are disjoint subsets of the inclusive sample that are either enhanced or depleted in single diffractive dissociation events. The data are compared to models used to describe high-energy hadronic interactions. None of the models considered provide a consistent description of the measured distributions.

Results on charged pion and kaon production in central Pb+Pb collisions at 20A and 30A GeV are presented and compared to data at lower and higher energies. Around 30A GeV a rapid change of the energy dependence for the yields of pions and kaons as well as for the shape of the transverse mass spectra is observed. The change is compatible with the prediction that the threshold for production of a state of deconfined matter at the early stage of the collisions is located at low CERN Super Proton Synchroton energies.

The TOTEM experiment has made a precise measurement of the elastic proton-proton differential cross-section at the centre-of-mass energy √ s = 8 TeV based on a high-statistics data sample obtained with the β * = 90 m optics. Both the statistical and systematic uncertainties remain below 1 %, except for the t-independent contribution from the overall normalisation. This unprecedented precision allows to exclude a purely exponential differential cross-section in the range of fourmomentum transfer squared 0.027 < |t| < 0.2 GeV 2 with a significance greater than 7 σ. Two extended parametrisations, with quadratic and cubic polynomials in the exponent, are shown to be well compatible with the data. Using them for the differential cross-section extrapolation to t = 0, and further applying the optical theorem, yields total cross-section estimates of (101.5 ± 2.1) mb and (101.9 ± 2.1) mb, respectively, in agreement with previous TOTEM measurements.This article is dedicated to the memory of Prof. E. Lippmaa and Prof. M. Lo Vetere who passed away recently

This paper describes the design and the performance of the timing detector developed by the TOTEM Collaboration for the Roman Pots (RPs) to measure the Time-Of-Flight (TOF) of the protons produced in central diffractive interactions at the LHC. The measurement of the TOF of the protons allows the determination of the longitudinal position of the proton interaction vertex and its association with one of the vertices reconstructed by the CMS detectors. The TOF detector is based on single crystal Chemical Vapor Deposition (scCVD) diamond plates and is designed to measure the protons TOF with about 50 ps time precision. This upgrade to the TOTEM apparatus will be used in the LHC run 2 and will tag the central diffractive events up to an interaction pileup of about 1. A dedicated fast and low noise electronics for the signal amplification has been developed. The digitization of the diamond signal is performed by sampling the waveform. After introducing the physics studies that will most profit from the addition of these new detectors, we discuss in detail the optimization and the performance of the first TOF detector installed in the LHC in November 2015.