No Arabic abstract
Details concerning the design, fabrication and performance of STAR Photon Multiplicity Detector (PMD) are presented. The PMD will cover the forward region, within the pseudorapidity range 2.3--3.5, behind the forward time projection chamber. It will measure the spatial distribution of photons in order to study collective flow, fluctuation and chiral symmetry restoration.
A high granularity preshower detector has been fabricated and installed in the WA98 Experiment at the CERN SPS for measuring the spatial distribution of photons produced in the forward region in lead ion induced interactions. Photons are counted by detecting the preshower signal in plastic scintillator pads placed behind a 3 radiation length thick lead converter and applying a threshold on the scintillator signal to reject the minimum ionizing particles. Techniques to improve the imaging of the fibre and performance of the detector in the high multiplicity environment of lead-lead collisions are described. Using Monte-Carlo simulation methods and test beam data of pi- and e- at various energies the photon counting efficiency is estimated to be 68% for central and 73% for peripheral Pb+Pb collisions.
The performance of the LAND neutron detector is studied. Using an event-mixing technique based on one-neutron data obtained in the S107 experiment at the GSI laboratory, we test the efficiency of various analytic tools used to determine the multiplicity and kinematic properties of detected neutrons. A new algorithm developed recently for recognizing neutron showers from spectator decays in the ALADIN experiment S254 is described in detail. Its performance is assessed in comparison with other methods. The properties of the observed neutron events are used to estimate the detection efficiency of LAND in this experiment.
A honeycomb detector consisting of a matrix of 96 closely packed hexagonal cells, each working as a proportional counter with a wire readout, was fabricated and tested at the CERN PS. The cell depth and the radial dimensions of the cell were small, in the range of 5-10 mm. The appropriate cell design was arrived at using GARFIELD simulations. Two geometries are described illustrating the effect of field shaping. The charged particle detection efficiency and the preshower characteristics have been studied using pion and electron beams. Average charged particle detection efficiency was found to be 98%, which is almost uniform within the cell volume and also within the array. The preshower data show that the transverse size of the shower is in close agreement with the results of simulations for a range of energies and converter thicknesses.
A discussion of results for short and long-range multiplicity correlations (forward-backward) are presented for several systems (Au+Au, Cu+Cu, and pp) and energies (e.g. $sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200, 62.4, and $approx$ 20 GeV). These correlations are measured with increasing values of a gap in pseudorapidity, from no gap at midrapidity to a separation of 1.6 units ($|eta|$ = 0.8). For the highest energy, central A+A collisions, the forward-backward correlation strength maintains a constant value across the measurement region. In peripheral collisions, at lower energies, and in pp data, the maximum appears at midrapidity. This result may indicate the possible formation of high density matter for central A+A collisions at $sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV.
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.