Commissioning and running of sPHENIX

["Yip, Kin" <kinyip AT bnl.gov>]

Hello,

Thia evening, I can cheerfully report that the long-awaited "white smoke" has materialized (after preparing for two full days .... Well, we started turning on normal flow for TPC gas last Thursday).

This afternoon/evening, I spent some time in 1008 room observing the TPC group (Tom, Charles, Evgeny and Luke) , John H., Martin, and Dan Cacace, completing the TPC test successfully.

Under Tom's and John's leadership, we have tried to do the most comprehensive TPC test (using the CAEN power supply and the long bundle of cables) that we can do in a very timely manner.  At the end of the test, we saw tracks successfully in the two sectors (611 & 612) in the North side of TPC in which we have installed the new equipment (along with other sectors).  One of these two sectors was pathologically bad before the repair/upgrade whereas the other sector had no defect.  

We have demanded this test to convince ourselves that the  TPC repair/upgrade scheme works and so we can start to prepare for the same TPC repair/upgrade for the entire TPC including both the North and South sides).

Now, we have reached this point and we will start to prepare for the South tomorrow (Nov. 22), which would (at some point soon) include taking out the MVTX.

 

Kin Yip

PS:

During the few hours in 1008, I also copied the "2023" files to the "2024" directory and we now have the "2024 run page" : 

https://sphenix-intra.sdcc.bnl.gov/WWW/run/2024/

Of course, I have changed only the "2023" to "2024" and the name of Run Coordinator on the above page.   Everything else has to be updated ...😅