sPHENIX is a new detector at RHIC.

[David Morrison <morrison AT bnl.gov>]

Dear collaborators,

We may have canceled the sPHENIX general meeting last Friday, but there
is still a ton of sPHENIX development to report – both on the
collaboration and the project sides of the effort.  While not a perfect
substitute for the canceled meeting, here's a brief "newsletter" style
update.  Grab a cup of coffee, read through this, and you'll be up to date.

Regards
Dave, Gunther, Ed

sPHENIX Collaboration News
==========================

A reminder that the next sPHENIX collaboration meeting will be held
December 6-8 at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida, and
we'd like to encourage everyone to attend.  We've set up an initial
Indico page with a registration form –
https://indico.bnl.gov/event/5190/ Please take a moment to register so
we can start to get a head-count for the meeting.

Here is the information for the block of hotel rooms reserved for the
sPHENIX collaboration meeting. Note that the block of rooms will be held
only until *November 16*.

DoubleTree by Hilton - Downtown Tallahassee

You  can make reservations by either one of the following methods:
Online at:
http://doubletree.hilton.com/en/dt/groups/personalized/T/THLAPDT-SPH-20181205/index.jhtml

Phone call-in reservations: Call 1-877-800-2652, Reference group code
SPH or mention sPHENIX Collaboration Physics

The rate is $129 per night, and includes parking, if you have a car. The
hotel is downtown and near the campus. The walk to the meeting room
(just off campus) will be a little over one mile, mostly through campus.
There will be parking available at the meeting location.


sPHENIX had a very nice showing at the recent Hard Probes conference in
Aix-les-Bains, France.  Excellent talks were given in the parallel
sessions by Jin Huang (BNL) and Songkyo Lee (ISU), and by Gunther Roland
as part of the prelude to the plenary panel discussion.

An updated deadline of October 31 for the sPHENIX/EIC design study was
established with the ALD.  Progress on that document has continued very
nicely.

The inner detector optimization task force is making strong progress,
with recently improved and vetted GEANT descriptions of the support
structure.  The collaboration will have a chance to digest the task
force findings when they are available, after which we will communicate
any conclusions regarding the inner detector configuration to the ALD.

Summary of sPHENIX Project Activities 9/24/18 - 10/5/18
=======================================================

The first OHCal steel sector has passed the mechanical inspection at
BNL. It meets our required dimensional accuracy. The tile gap is correct
 everywhere.  We expect the second OHCal sector to arrive at BNL within
three weeks. The plan is to do a test assembly of the first two sectors
at BNL once the custom joining plates, pins and fasteners arrive at BNL
later this year. We have prepared space in Building 912 (AGS floor) for
the OHCal sector assembly and testing.

There was a design review of the TPC SAMPA chip modification. The review
was chaired by John Haggerty and included outside ASIC-design experts
Mitch Newcomer (UPenn) and Chuck Britton (ORNL). The reviewers'
conclusion was that the University of Sao Paulo team had done a thorough
job modifying the SAMPA chip design to accommodate our request for a 80
ns shaping time and that they are ready to submit the revised portions
of the chip to a multi-project run in October. We should have the
modified chip produced in small quantities and available for testing by
January.

The FY19 federal budget that funds the DOE Office of Science has been
passed and it contains funding for sPHENIX.  We will begin submitting
purchase orders for our long lead-time procurements immediately,
starting with the Silicon Photomultipliers. That will be followed in the
next few weeks by orders for the production quantities of the EMCal
scintillating fibers. The scintillating tile order for the HCal and
tungsten powder order for the EMCal will be placed once we are satisfied
with the quality and performance of the pre-production tiles, and  EMCal
blocks made from the pre-production powder.

We are preparing for the order of MVTX staves and readout units from
CERN.  Discussions are underway between BNL (including sPHENIX
Management), CERN and the US-ALICE project team on the details of the
transaction. The MVTX team has demonstrated  that a 25cm extension of
the stave power cable has no measurable effect on the stave output
signal. The MVTX team has also addressed the recommendations of the July
review committee to conduct further rad hardness tests of the staves and
magnetic field tests for the read out units. Both tests concluded that
the MVTX components are robust in the radiation and magnetic field
environment of sPHENIX.

-- 
David Morrison  Brookhaven National Laboratory  phone: 631-344-5840
                Physics Department, Bldg 510 C    fax: 631-344-3253
                          Upton, NY 11973-5000  email: dave AT bnl.gov