Commissioning and running of sPHENIX

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

Hello sPHENIXians,

This week marks the start of cryo-week #22 (out of 19 + 6 + 2 = 27).     With the two-week extension of the run, the current pp data collection goes until September 30, 2024 followed by 3 weeks of AuAu, i.e., until October 21, 2024.   

The last week has had very steady, good efficiency data taking with all subsystems.     Experts on the TPC and DAQ front have been vigilant in working round the clock with the shift crews to keep things going and with good data quality.    With 19 more days of pp data taking, the plan is mostly to keep running steadily.    There is a new version of the TPC FELIX firmware that was tested today and  may improve stability and allow us to increase the streaming data rate.      The path to maximum physics this run has involved tradeoffs.     At this point, the calorimetric jets & photons sample over all z-vertices has reached over 90 pb^-1,  which is 200% of the BUP goal.     For the jets & photons & upsilons with full tracking and |z| < 10 cm, sPHENIX to date has 15% of the BUP goal.    Finally, for open heavy flavor from streaming tracking, sPHENIX to date has 25% of the BUP goal.      The latter two are on track to double before the end of the pp running, i.e.., 30% and 50% respectively.   The graph below shows a summary of the run so far and the time remaining.    

Below are the links to the weekly RHIC Coordination meeting presentations from sPHENIX and C-AD.  

https://indico.bnl.gov/event/20768/contributions/96503/attachments/57160/98117/sPHENIXRunCoordinator_RHICCoordinationMeeting2024_09102024.pdf

https://indico.bnl.gov/event/20768/contributions/96502/attachments/57150/98090/RHIC_Coordination_Meeting_XXXII.pdf

Lastly, welcome to our awesome new sPHENIX shift crew (picture below) and the new Period Coordinator Martin Purschke (picture below).   Extra thanks to our outgoing Period Coordinator Yeonju Go.    Lastly, a big round of applause to Yuko Shoji Sekiguchi for taking over a week of owl shifts with eight-hour advance notice for a sick collaborator.   We are all in this together.

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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