STAR NEWSLETTER NUMBER 56

1. From the Spokesman:

Reported by John Harris

First of all, I wish to congratulate the STAR Electromagnetic Calorimeter (EMC) group for its hard work in preparation for and their presentations to the RHIC Technical Advisory Review Committee. As many of you may know, the review was successful and the STAR EMC received approval for construction of 12 modules or 10 percent of the entire EMC barrel for start-up of RHIC. This is even a bit more ambitious than the STAR EMC was proposing and represents a challenge for the EMC group and to STAR to bring online these modules in one year. I am extremely pleased by this development and I anticipate successful completion of the first ten percent of the EMC barrel modules for start-up. This will present STAR with some excellent physics opportunities. I wish to congratulate Tom Cormier (STAR EMC Project Leader), Simon Bennett (EMC Project Manager), and Dave Underwood (EMC Technical Director) for their leadership and the group for its hard work on the conceptual design and prototyping. It is clear that a change in focus for the EMC project is forthcoming to a more construction-oriented approach, which will be a challenge to integrate, manage and undertake effectively. Another TAC review for construction approval to complete the barrel is anticipated in about a year, when the 12 modules are near completion.

I would like to call to the attention of the collaboration my intention, after discussions with fellow collaborators, to initiate some changes in the format of the STAR Collaboration Meeting. The next meeting will take place 26 July - 1 August at BNL. It is clear that the emphasis in the work necessary for startup of STAR is changing. The baseline detector design and prototyping is for the most part complete. Construction, assembly and testing is underway for most of the baseline subsystems. There has been a rapid acceleration of the software efforts, which will continue to move at a fast pace. There are additional detectors in line for construction, testing and installation behind the baseline detectors. There are new detectors under consideration. There are clearly hardware and software timelines and deadlines to be met. There is infrastructure, online, reconstruction, physics analysis and simulation software to be completed. There are physics and detectors to be understood, even before we start operation of STAR.

After discussions with various members in STAR and comments o the collaboration meeting format, both solicited and unsolicited (but all welcome), I propose to emphasize what's necessary for STAR and the project in this final year of STAR before data-taking and physics. Thus, in the upcoming collaboration meeting I propose that the baseline hardware project reports in plenary sessions will all but vanish, although the hardware project working groups will meet. There will be working group meetings for new detectors, and plenary presentations on those which are seeking approval or still in the early stages. There will be brief reports on the plans for the EMC for the next year and on SVT progress and plans. There will be physics working group meetings and selected presentations in plenary sessions. There will be more emphasis on meetings of the software working groups (probably two days worth). There will be a plenary report on how the baseline project will proceed over the next year of installation and testing before we are finally ready for data acquisition. There will be a report on the transition from the STAR Project to operation of STAR as an experiment. There will be a report on how the STAR software project is evolving now, how it will evolve over the next year, and how it will look from the perspective of the end user at home. There will be a report from the STAR analysis coordinator on the status of the physics analysis software. I would also like to encourage more physics discussion in the plenary sessions. There are any number of ways of doing this (which I will pursue) and any suggestions on how this can be done effectively are welcome. In general, I solicit comments on the plans that I have just outlined as I develop the collaboration meeting agenda over the next few weeks.

Excerpted from the STAR Monthly Report for April 1998.

A milestone which is still 6 weeks away, but fast approaching, is Magnet power-up. In mid-to-late June, we expect to begin powering up the Magnet and putting it through its paces in preparation for mapping in late July through August.

Beginning in June, the TPC is expected to be in shape to begin flowing P-10 gas and to apply high voltage to both field cages and sectors. At about the same time the Front End Electronics (FEE) group will begin the installation and testing of front end and read-out cards. In the case of the TPC, this has and will continue to require significant effort in procedure writing, safety review and approval.

The relevant STAR subsystem managers are well aware of the key dates, and along with their colleagues are working hard to ensure everything happens on time. You will read about all the progress made along these lines in the body of this month's report.

TPC Summary and Highlights

Magnet Summary and Highlights

Electronics Summary and Highlights

Systems Test

The prototype MWPC readout cards were tested successfully for physical fit. Functional tests have to await the custom ICs which should be complete in May.

Front End Electronics (FEE)

Data Acquisition (DAQ)

Trigger

Slow Controls

Computing Summary and Highlights

Production and testing of the full Offline chain are underway in an MDC CRS pilot project at BNL. Initial testing has been with fast simulators; further testing is proceeding with slow simulators. The CRS chain is on target for deployment in MDC1; the CAS chain and analysis software in general are in need of much more effort in order to have a presence in MDC1.

Major progress was made in porting Offline infrastructure and application software to the Cray T3E, Windows NT and Linux platforms. Memory leaks and crashes in the Offline software remain a serious problem being actively worked on.

The Forward TPC fast and slow simulation - reconstruction chains and kumacs have also been updated and installed under the latest SL98c version of STAF.

Substantial progress was made in April on the simulations production facility at NERSC and the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center. The major problems with porting CERNLIB to the CRAY T3Es appear to be overcome. Work began on writing event generator output in xdf format on the T3E. Large scale production will hopefully start in May.

The Online group continues to make excellent progress. The code necessary to cover the minimum functionality needed for the May Integration test is completed except for some details. Integration, testing and polishing of the code is now underway. All details will be ready by May 15th.

Conventional Systems and Integration Summary and Highlights

Installation of electronics racks was completed in early April. The AC power distribution system will be installed in the racks in May.

Rack electronics heat exchangers arrived at LBNL for minor additional work and the first batch was delivered to BNL by month end. The VME crate order was awarded to Wiener and they have agreed to our proposed delivery dates with the exception of the 6U DAQ crates.

Dear Colleagues,

This is just a short note to say that we have now managed to secure office furniture for Bldg 902, as well as an upgraded network connection, so that the STAR user space in this area is now outfitted with desks and chairs, book shelves, phones, and a good network connection (10 Base T). I think this space is now ready to be quite productive for STAR users, with the caveat that we have not been able to put computer hardware on many of the desks in 902. The local group does not have sufficient funds for permanent computer hardware for the user offices, so it will be necessary in general for STAR institutions to provide the computer hardware needed to support their operation at BNL.

I am hopeful in general that STAR users will begin to utilize the space in 902, consistent with the plans of each institution. If you are able to send some equipment before the Collaboration meeting, we will try to insure it is installed and ready for your use by the time of the meeting. Thanks, and we at BNL are looking forward to hosting the STAR users from your institution soon.

There is a new bullet on the STAR homepage. It is called "Viewgraphs". It contains viewgraphs and talks that are of general interest to the collaboration. The goal is to provide viewgraphs covering STAR physics topics at the level of a first year graduate student. Each viewgraph can be downloaded so that collaboration members can print out a copy for their own use.

Jim Thomas has provided the first set of slides. You might enjoy looking though his contribution which is entitled "An Introduction to the STAR Detector at RHIC". Jim has also volunteered to help other collaboration members post material on this page. Contributions need to be in HTML format but postscript files should also be provided so that collaborators can download high quality versions of each slide. Officially, any contributions to this page should be cleared through the Spokesman's office but Jim can help you do this.

Additional material is requested. Especially from each of the physics working group leaders and from various technical committee members. It would be nice to have a good set of slides from each STAR group summarizing the groups goals and highlights of recent progress. And a keynote talk, or two, from distinguished collaborators would also be welcome. So if you have material or ideas for material to go on this page, contact Jim.

RHIC Summer School. July 8th-14th at BNL. For further info. please see the RHIC'98 WWW page: http://penquin.phy.bnl.gov/www/rhic98/

AGS/RHIC Annual Users Meeting. July 16-17 at BNL. For further Info. pleasesee the AGS/RHIC Users group WWW page: http://www.phy.bnl.gov/ags_users/ags_users.html

STAR collaboration meeting. Scheduled for July 26 - August 1st, 1998, at BNL. For further information please contact John Harris, Yale.

greetings from beautiful long island. the warm late spring/ummer weather has set in here on long island. daytime highs are now running from the mid 70 to low 80 f range. the water surrounding the island, the atlantic ocean to the south and the long island sound to the north, have started their annual warming and are up to about 60 f. through the course of the summer these bodies of water will reach the high 60's to about 70 f range, just about perfect for swimming. may went out, and june got started, with a bang last night as intense thunder storms moved through the area.

Installation continued to move forward at the STAR site during May. The installation of the water cooled bus lines for the magnet have now progressed to the point on the wall of the Assembly Building (AB) where the power will be bridged over to the North platform for operations of the magnet in the AB. Work will continue in June on the two ends of this bus line (one end in second floor power supply room of AB and other end on wall of AB) to get ready for the upcoming power supply tests, and then the bus will be extended into the Wide Angle Hall (WAH). The TPC was purged with Nitrogen during May to dry and stretch the central membrane (Cathode) of the TPC and the membrane was surveyed. The TPC gas and water lines on the West end of the magnet were installed in May, as well as the cable tray runs, in preparation for the installation of TPC cabling which will get started on June 1st. If you look in the next few days at the construction picture on the WWW (via the STAR home page) you'll get an idea of what this all looks like. You may be able to make out the 3 inch diameter stainless steel TPC gas supply and return lines at 6:00 ad 12:00 on the face of the magnet. The thin grey plastic pipe rounding the magnet face are the supply and return lines for the TPC cooling water. The shiny aluminum structures that you'll see around the face of the magnet, and extending into the bore of the magnet are the cable trays. The main machanical pieces of the pole tip support carraiges are installed on their rails in the AB, and are in the process of getting their Hydraulic systems installed. The transport cart that will be used to bring the poletips into the AB is in the AB, on its rollers on the West main magnet rail. In preparation for the start of the system tests a network switch was installed in the rack room at the STAR site. The DAQ, trigger, and Online groups have all started moving computers and equipment into the rack room to get this systems test started. The AC power distribution on the electronics platforms also got started in May.

June is going to be a very busy month at the STAR site. Once the hydraulic systems are installed on the poletip carraiges the poletips will be brought into the AB and installed. There are what are referred to as "Poletip trim coils" that reside in recesses on the inner face of the poletips, surrounding the holes in their centers, which will then be installed. In preparation for the mapping of the magnet at the end of July and extending into the start of August, the water manifold for the magnet will be installed, the water system will be tested, the power supply rectifiers will be installed and tested, the water cooled bus to the AB position will be completed, and the STAR magnet and platforms will be moved back into the AB from the WAH. Also in June the AC power on the platforms will be extended into the racks, the Modified Chilled Water (MCW) piping will be installed on the platforms, the cable trays on the magnet will be completed, and the placement of the TPC cables into the trays will continue.

Finally, I'm happy to report that with Howard Wieman and the other STAR collaborators working on the various TPC systems in the AB, the DAQ, trigger, and online groups starting to work in the rack room, and STAR collaborators here to pull/install TPC cables, the STAR site is beginning to get the feel of a physics experiment.

7. Employment opportunities

University of Birmingham

(United Kingdom)

School of Physics and Astronomy

The Nuclear Physics group requires a postdoctoral research fellow to participate in its experimental programme in relativistic heavy-ion physics. The group is a member of the NA49 collaboration at CERN. In addition, a new experiment at the Brookhaven National Laboratory is being prepared within the STAR collaboration in readiness for first beams in 1999. The successful candidate must have a Ph.D. and is expected to have some experience in the field of heavy-ion physics.

Informal inquiries to Profesor J.M. Nelson.

E-mail: J.M.Nelson@bham.ac.uk

FAX: +44 121 414 4719

RIKEN-BNL Fellow

An experimental division on spin physics of the RIKEN BNL Research Center will be established this summer. RHIC will be the first polarized propton collider, beginning in 2000, and the Center will play a major in developing the RHIC spin program. RIKEN-BNL Fellow (up to a five-year appointment) and Research Associate (two-year appointment) positions will be offered for the fall of 1998. Members of the experimental division of the Center will have the opportunity to participate in the detector program at RHIC. Scientists with appropriate backgrounds who are interested in applying should send a curriculum vitae and three letters of reference to Dr. T.D. Lee, Bldg. 510A, before July 15, 1998.

8. New STAR NOTES since the last Newsletter