Commissioning and running of sPHENIX

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

Hello sPHENIX Collaboration,

sPHENIX is now starting "Cryo-Week #3" and though we have only had collisions for a few days, an amazing amount has been accomplished and C-AD has just declared "physics" running.

sPHENIX welcomes a new, intrepid shift crew (pictured below) and the continued intrepid leadership of Period Coordinator Megan Connors (also pictured below).    So much has happened over the last week, that I am just linking the slides shown by sPHENIX at the RHIC Coordination Meeting today.

https://indico.bnl.gov/event/20768/contributions/90890/attachments/54220/92776/sPHENIXRunCoordinator_RHICCoordinationMeeting20240430.pdf

Kin Hicks from DOE Nuclear Physics was called into the meeting and afterwards sent me an email saying ... "First, let me say congratulations to you and the sPHENIX team (as well as the BNL accelerator folks) on the impressive progress toward commissioning this new detector!  I’m sure that there are details that worry the experts, but from an outsider perspective, things are looking better than I expected."     

The beam looks stable with low backgrounds and the MVTX is having no auto-recovery errors that were a major concern coming into this run.   The C-AD delivered bunch intensity is still significantly below where we need to be;  however, we are just at the start of the run.     This next week we need to iron out various issues running the full system at high luminosity, and at the same time bring the TPC carefully up to a full running state.     I am really proud of how well people are working together and in a positive collaborative way here in 1008!

Stay connected.    Call into the 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.    

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

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

Lastly, people have done a great job signing up for shifts.    There are some swaps available on the "Trading Market" and there are shifts available in August-October!

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

Sincerely,

Jamie

sPHENIX Run Coordinator 2024

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|| 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 
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