sPHENIX is a new detector at RHIC.

[Mickey Chiu <chiu AT bnl.gov>]

Hi,

With the great help of the 1008 techs, especially Jimmy, the south MBD was installed this week.  I think they seemed especially pleased since this marks that we’re near the end of this grand adventure we’ve all been on.  

Due to all the activity still going on, such as scaffold rebuilds and rack disruptions, we’re still working on verifying the south detector as installed.  We verified the detector on the bench just before installation, so now it’s just a matter of checking that the cabling and grounding are okay.  The north was installed a couple of weeks ago and is ready for the run.  After Dan Lis and John Kuczewski identified all the bad electronics in our readout chain and replaced them, we’re also now able to read out the electronics through Martin’s rcdaq.  Next step will be timing in the laser, so hopefully that happens soon.

Thanks go to FAMU and Howard for providing the students (Alex and Abdul in the pictures below) who are working hard on the commissioning, and to RIKEN in particular for providing our good old friend the BBCs.

Sincerely,

Mickey