PHENIX central arm particle ID detectors Aizawa, M.; Akiba, Y.; Begay, R. ...
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment,
03/2003, Volume:
499, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
The Ring-Imaging Cherenkov (RICH) and the Time-of-Flight (ToF) systems provide identification of charged particles for the PHENIX central arm. The RICH is located between the inner and outer tracking ...units and is one of the primary devices for identifying electrons among the very large number of charged pions. The ToF is used to identify hadrons and is located between the most outer pad chamber (PC3) and the electromagnetic calorimeter. A Time Zero (T0) counter that enhances charged particle measurements in p–p collisions is described. Details of the construction and performance of both the RICH, ToF and T0 are given along with typical results from the first PHENIX data taking run.
The effect of the final state Coulomb interaction on particles produced in Pb+Pb collisions at 158 A GeV/c has been investigated in the WA98 experiment through the study of the pi-/pi+ and K-/K+ ...ratios measured as a function of transverse mass. While the ratio for kaons shows no significant transverse mass dependence, the pi-/pi+ ratio is enhanced at small transverse mass values with an enhancement that increases with centrality. A silicon pad detector located near the target is used to estimate the contribution of hyperon decays to the pi-/pi+ ratio. The comparison of results with predictions of the RQMD model in which the Coulomb interaction has been incorporated allows to place constraints on the time of the pion freeze-out.
A large acceptance tracking system, specially developed for tracking at very high particle densities encountered in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions is described. The system is a combination ...of multi-step avalanche chambers equipped with electronic pad readout with high position resolution in two dimensions and streamer-tube detectors with pad readout, with coarser position resolution, that is sufficient for safe pattern recognition. A high-resolution time-of-flight system (time resolution better than 90 ps) provides particle identification up to 8 GeV/
c for pions and protons and pion/kaon separation up to 4 GeV/
c. All detectors in the tracking system are read out with new, high-performance integrated circuits. The system can operate at high event rates due to efficient zero suppression. The performance of the system for tracking under real running conditions with Pb-beam at 158 A GeV in the WA98 experiment at CERN is presented.
A measurement of direct photon production in {sup 208}Pb+ {sup 208}Pb collisions at 158A GeV has been carried out in the CERN WA98 experiment. The invariant yield of direct photons in central ...collisions is extracted as a function of transverse momentum in the interval 0.5<p{sub T}<4 GeV/c . A significant direct photon signal, compared to statistical and systematical errors, is seen at p{sub T}>1.5 GeV/c . The result constitutes the first observation of direct photons in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions. It could be significant for diagnosis of quark-gluon-plasma formation.
We have developed large area multi-step avalanche chambers with electronic readout for tracking in a very high multiplicity environment in the WA98 experiment at the CERN SPS. The operational ...characteristics of the detection system is reported. The reconstruction efficiency of the chambers varies with the density of charged particles in the range of 91–96%. The position resolution has been found to be 0.5 and 1.7
mm in the horizontal and vertical directions, respectively.
The azimuthal distributions of photons and charged particles with respect to the event plane are investigated as a function of centrality in 208Pb + 208Pb collisions at 158 · A GeV/c in the WA98 ...experiment at the CERN SPS. The anisotropy of the azimuthal distributions is characterized using a Fourier analysis. For both the photon and charged particle distributions the first two Fourier coefficients are observed to decrease with increasing centrality. The observed anisotropies of the photon distributions compare well with the expectations from the charged particle measurements for all centralities.
The azimuthal distributions of photons and charged particles with respect to the event plane are investigated as a function of centrality in Pb + Pb collisions at 158 A GeV/c in the WA98 experiment ...at the CERN SPS. The anisotropy of the azimuthal distributions is characterized using a Fourier analysis. For both the photon and charged particle distributions the first two Fourier coefficients are observed to decrease with increasing centrality. The observed anisotropies of the photon distributions compare well with the expectations from the charged particle measurements for all centralities.
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