541 research outputs found
Integration and Conventional Systems at STAR
At the beginning of the design and construction of the STAR Detector, the
collaboration assigned a team of physicists and engineers the responsibility of
coordinating the construction of the detector. This group managed the general
space assignments for each sub-system and coordinated the assembly and planning
for the detector. Furthermore, as this group was the only STAR group with the
responsibility of looking at the system as a whole, the collaboration assigned
it several tasks that spanned the different sub-detectors. These items included
grounding, rack layout, cable distribution, electrical, power and water, and
safety systems. This paper describes these systems and their performance.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures, Contribution to a NIM Volume Dedicated to the
Detectors and the Accelerator at RHI
The BRAN luminosity detectors for the LHC
This paper describes the several phases which led, from the conceptual
design, prototyping, construction and tests with beam, to the installation and
operation of the BRAN (Beam RAte of Neutrals) relative luminosity monitors for
the LHC. The detectors have been operating since 2009 to contribute, optimize
and maintain the accelerator performance in the two high luminosity interaction
regions (IR), the IR1 (ATLAS) and the IR5 (CMS). The devices are gas ionization
chambers installed inside a neutral particle absorber 140 m away from the
Interaction Points in IR1 and IR5 and monitor the energy deposited by
electromagnetic showers produced by high-energy neutral particles from the
collisions. The detectors have the capability to resolve the bunch-by-bunch
luminosity at the 40 MHz bunch rate, as well as to survive the extreme level of
radiation during the nominal LHC operation. The devices have operated since the
early commissioning phase of the accelerator over a broad range of luminosities
reaching 1.4*10^34 cm-2 s-1 with a peak pileup of 45 events per bunch crossing.
Even though the nominal design luminosity of the LHC has been exceeded, the
BRAN is operating well. After describing the multiple applications that the
BRAN can be used to monitor the luminosity of the accelerator, we discuss the
technical choices that led to its construction and the different tests
performed prior to the installation in two IRs of the LHC. Performance
simulations are presented together with operational results obtained during p-p
operations, including runs at 40 MHz bunch rate, Pb-Pb operations and p-Pb
operations.Comment: 22 pages, 32 Figure
The STAR Time Projection Chamber: A Unique Tool for Studying High Multiplicity Events at RHIC
The STAR Time Projection Chamber (TPC) is used to record collisions at the
Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The TPC is the central element in a
suite of detectors that surrounds the interaction vertex. The TPC provides
complete coverage around the beam-line, and provides complete tracking for
charged particles within +- 1.8 units of pseudo-rapidity of the center-of-mass
frame. Charged particles with momenta greater than 100 MeV/c are recorded.
Multiplicities in excess of 3,000 tracks per event are routinely reconstructed
in the software. The TPC measures 4 m in diameter by 4.2 m long, making it the
largest TPC in the world.Comment: 28 pages, 11 figure
King Pin? A Case Study of a Middle Market Drug Broker
The article is concerned with 'middle market' drug distribution, based on research that involved prison interviews with middle and upper level drug dealers and interviews with a range of enforcement personnel. It offers a preliminary discussion of different definitions of the 'middle market', where various forms of drug brokerage connect up different levels of drug markets. It goes on to provide a detailed case study of a single middle market drug distribution network, illustrating the complexity of such operations, the way in which drug brokers work as free trading entrepreneurs, and the often misunderstood role of violence in serious crime networks such as these
Kaon Production and Kaon to Pion Ratio in Au+Au Collisions at \snn=130 GeV
Mid-rapidity transverse mass spectra and multiplicity densities of charged
and neutral kaons are reported for Au+Au collisions at \snn=130 GeV at RHIC.
The spectra are exponential in transverse mass, with an inverse slope of about
280 MeV in central collisions. The multiplicity densities for these particles
scale with the negative hadron pseudo-rapidity density. The charged kaon to
pion ratios are and
for the most central collisions. The ratio is lower than the same
ratio observed at the SPS while the is higher than the SPS result.
Both ratios are enhanced by about 50% relative to p+p and +p
collision data at similar energies.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl
Experimental and Theoretical Challenges in the Search for the Quark Gluon Plasma: The STAR Collaboration's Critical Assessment of the Evidence from RHIC Collisions
We review the most important experimental results from the first three years
of nucleus-nucleus collision studies at RHIC, with emphasis on results from the
STAR experiment, and we assess their interpretation and comparison to theory.
The theory-experiment comparison suggests that central Au+Au collisions at RHIC
produce dense, rapidly thermalizing matter characterized by: (1) initial energy
densities above the critical values predicted by lattice QCD for establishment
of a Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP); (2) nearly ideal fluid flow, marked by
constituent interactions of very short mean free path, established most
probably at a stage preceding hadron formation; and (3) opacity to jets. Many
of the observations are consistent with models incorporating QGP formation in
the early collision stages, and have not found ready explanation in a hadronic
framework. However, the measurements themselves do not yet establish
unequivocal evidence for a transition to this new form of matter. The
theoretical treatment of the collision evolution, despite impressive successes,
invokes a suite of distinct models, degrees of freedom and assumptions of as
yet unknown quantitative consequence. We pose a set of important open
questions, and suggest additional measurements, at least some of which should
be addressed in order to establish a compelling basis to conclude definitively
that thermalized, deconfined quark-gluon matter has been produced at RHIC.Comment: 101 pages, 37 figures; revised version to Nucl. Phys.
Direct Measurement of the Pseudoscalar Decay Constant fD+
The absolute branching fraction of has been directly
measured by an analysis of a data sample of about 33 collected
around GeV with the BES-II at the BEPC. At these energies,
meson is produced in pair as . A total of mesons are reconstructed from this data set. In the
recoil side of the tagged mesons, purely leptonic decay
events of are observed. This yields a branching fraction of
, and a
corresponding pseudoscalar decay constant
MeV.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures, Submitted to Physics Letters B in October, 200
Phi meson production in Au+Au and p+p collisions at sqrt (s)=200 GeV
We report the STAR measurement of Phi meson production in Au+Au and p+p
collisions at sqrt (s)=200 GeV. Using the event mixing technique, the Phi
spectra and yields are obtained at mid-rapidity for five centrality bins in
Au+Au collisions and for non-singly-diffractive p+p collisions. It is found
that the Phi transverse momentum distributions from Au+Au collisions are better
fitted with a single-exponential while the p+p spectrum is better described by
a double-exponential distribution. The measured nuclear modification factors
indicate that Phi production in central Au+Au collisions is suppressed relative
to peripheral collisions when scaled by the number of binary collisions. The
systematics of versus centrality and the constant Phi/K- ratio versus beam
species, centrality, and collision energy rule out kaon coalescence as the
dominant mechanism for Phi production.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
Precise Measurements of Beam Spin Asymmetries in Semi-Inclusive production
We present studies of single-spin asymmetries for neutral pion
electroproduction in semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering of 5.776 GeV
polarized electrons from an unpolarized hydrogen target, using the CEBAF Large
Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS) at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator
Facility. A substantial amplitude has been measured in the
distribution of the cross section asymmetry as a function of the azimuthal
angle of the produced neutral pion. The dependence of this amplitude
on Bjorken and on the pion transverse momentum is extracted with
significantly higher precision than previous data and is compared to model
calculations.Comment: to be submitted PL
Energy and system size dependence of \phi meson production in Cu+Cu and Au+Au collisions
We study the beam-energy and system-size dependence of \phi meson production
(using the hadronic decay mode \phi -- K+K-) by comparing the new results from
Cu+Cu collisions and previously reported Au+Au collisions at \sqrt{s_NN} = 62.4
and 200 GeV measured in the STAR experiment at RHIC. Data presented are from
mid-rapidity (|y|<0.5) for 0.4 < pT < 5 GeV/c. At a given beam energy, the
transverse momentum distributions for \phi mesons are observed to be similar in
yield and shape for Cu+Cu and Au+Au colliding systems with similar average
numbers of participating nucleons. The \phi meson yields in nucleus-nucleus
collisions, normalised by the average number of participating nucleons, are
found to be enhanced relative to those from p+p collisions with a different
trend compared to strange baryons. The enhancement for \phi mesons is observed
to be higher at \sqrt{s_NN} = 200 GeV compared to 62.4 GeV. These observations
for the produced \phi(s\bar{s}) mesons clearly suggest that, at these collision
energies, the source of enhancement of strange hadrons is related to the
formation of a dense partonic medium in high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions
and cannot be alone due to canonical suppression of their production in smaller
systems.Comment: 20 pages and 5 figure
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