The QUARTIC time-of-flight detector is a part of a proposed upgrade that adds proton taggers 420m upstream and downstream of the ATLAS and CMS detectors. The entire project is called FP420 (Forward Protons at 420 meters), and it is an international collaboration with members from 10 countries and 29 institutions. Double proton tagging at 420m offers a unique opportunity to extend the discovery reach of the LHC and has the potential to give a high scientific return. Proton tagging may be the discovery channel for the Higgs boson in certain regions of the MSSM and, in most scenarios, will help untangle the properties of the Higgs and its charge and parity quantum numbers.

Fast time-of-flight counters are planned to dramatically decrease backgrounds to events with a massive central system and forward/backward protons, by using timing to confirm that the protons originated from the same vertex as the central system. QUARTIC’s design uses an array of fused silica (quartz-like) bars aligned at an angle with respect to the beam. The protons pass through the bars and emit Cherenkov photons which are detected by a micro-channel plate photomultiplier tube at the end of the bars.

In this work I present the results of the first stage of R&D efforts for the QUARTIC detector. Preliminary studies and results of simulations of several detector geometries are summarized. The experimental tools and analysis framework developed to allow testing of the first two prototypes in the Meson Test Beam Facility at Fermilab are described. Finally the results obtained in August 2006 and March 2007 runs at the Test Beam are presented.