A Very High Momentum Particle Identification Detector for the ALICE experiment

The main purpose of the ALICE experiment at CERN is to identify and study the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) in heavy ion collisions at the LHC. Among others, hadrochemistry allows for a detailed insight into the characteristics of the high temperature and density system created in these events. It is therefore important to be able to identify charged particles on a track by track basis. Moreover, results from high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions obtained by other experiments (e.g. at RHIC) indicate that it is imperative to extend the detection capability of ALICE to higher momenta. To meet these challenges, we propose the construction of the Very High Momentum Particle Identification Detector (VHMPID), which aims to identify charged pions, kaons, protons and antiprotons in the momentum range of 10 GeV/c < p(T) < 30 GeV/c. In this contribution we will review the relevant physics arguments in proton-proton and heavy ion collisions as well as the detector proposal based on a RICH (Ring Imaging Cherenkov) detector with a C(4)F(10) radiator and a MWPC based CsI photon counter. In addition, we will present the advances in the development of an alternative multi-THGEM based CsI photon detector.