sPHENIX is a new detector at RHIC.

[Gunther M Roland <rolandg AT mit.edu>]

Hi Ming et al,

Unfortunately, I couldn't follow all of the discussion at last week's LBNL meeting, so I'm not sure if this was brought up there. I'm a little unsure about the mention of a potential ToF proposal in this pre-proposal ("In addition, a time of flight (TOF) detector with the timing resolution of 40ps or less is under discussion in sPHENIX. Particle identification capability will be greatly enhanced should the TOF be realized, and so will be the the overall physics program at sPHENIX."). 

This may be a bit premature given the status of the discussion within sPHENIX so far, and may also not be the best way to introduce yet another potentially significant addition to the detector to DOE.  It seems like this could raise questions that we are not prepared to answer at this time and given the significant technical, timing (in all forms) and funding challenges it seems risky to tie the physics of the MAPS proposal to the potential TOF project in a significant way. I think we should avoid the impression that this is or will evolve into a MAPS+TOF proposal. 

Cheers,

Gunther