Commissioning and running of sPHENIX

[Jamie Nagle <jamie.nagle AT colorado.edu>]

Hello sPHENIX Collaboration,

sPHENIX is now in the sixth week of 2-person watch shifts with Anthony Hodges taking over as Period Coordinator!
Another thank you to John Haggerty at the completion of his Period Coordinatorship!

Note that we will only start 4-person shifts April 16, 2024, which is at the scheduled start of RHIC cooldown to 4 K.   The current cryo-week plan with (19+6 weeks) will then go until October 7, 2024.      As announced on this email list, the Shift Sign Up page (linked below) now includes newly opened 4-person shifts extending to that date, followed by four weeks of 2-person shifts after the beam is done.     We also have a handful of critical open shifts before then that need filling - check them out and sign up!

https://www.sphenix.bnl.gov/ShiftSignupRun2/

There  is a new link from the above page ("Trading Market"), also linked directly below.    If  you are looking to trade shifts or find a potential replacement, this is a new communication tool.    Note that you are responsible for your shift until you have a replacement and you then email myself and Kin to enter it into the official schedule.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zkuV193so37Z951g0T8ORavPCjpRnoWkmm-THvfya-4/edit#gid=0

There has been enormous progress over the last  week, and with still a  lot to accomplish over the next three weeks before beam.    The shield wall is closed and the IR is on Restricted Access.   The beam pipe position was adjusted, though there remains a significant misalignment (~ 8 mm) with  respect to nominal.    Discussions with C-AD indicate that the beam pipe  is still  more than 6 sigma on the beam spot size away, though concerns about backgrounds can only be addressed with beam.     Collisions will still take place at the nominal position, so not centered in the beam pipe or with respect to the MVTX.     Both  the MVTX and INTT just flushed their cooling due to algae buildup and a new algaecide is being introduced.    One highlight  is that the MVTX with shorter cables looks able to readout at twice the speed of last year.     The MBD  was installed yesterday and is being cabled up for full  testing.    The sEPD installation  is scheduled  in one week.   The TPC has taken additional cosmics though humidity/cooling issues remain to be addressed.   The sort-out-boxes are almost complete which will allow new firmware for the TPC FEE to be uploaded and tested which is critical for zero suppression, alignment of data, etc.     TPOT has been running stably and taking cosmics.     The EMCal and HCal are both now essentially on all the time and DAQ tests showed 15 kHz with zero suppression on the EMCal and perfect data alignment.   DAQ/Readout stability remains an ongoing task.  An issue with the cosmic trigger for HCal calibration is resolved, and key tests  for the JET trigger have been done.   Note that all detectors are still under expert control.

Thanks in advance to our sixth set of dedicated shifters pictured below!

* We will continue with daily Shift Change Meetings (SCM) at 3:30 pm ET.    We have a daily google doc of notes and "plan of the day" linked from the run page.   The Zoom link for the SCM is also given at the top of the Run-2024 web page and repeated below.    We will start having a more complete set of detector status reports.

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

https://bnl.zoomgov.com/j/1614645041?pwd=bmE4STBRZk5tVVVUUC8zRnQxSlFyQT09

Note that for a couple more weeks, there will also continue to be the 8:30 am ET daily meetings chaired by Jim Mills and John Haggerty.   

Sincerely,

Jamie

sPHENIX Run Coordinator 2024

||------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|| James L. Nagle   
|| Professor of Physics, University of Colorado Boulder

|| EMAIL:   jamie.nagle AT colorado.edu
|| SKYPE:  jamie-nagle        
|| WEB:      http://spot.colorado.edu/~naglej 
||------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------