STAR NEWSLETTER NUMBER 57

1. From the Spokesman:

Reported by John Harris

I would like to call your attention to a few additions to the STAR webpages regarding STAR physics. A new entry entitled "physics" from the STAR homepage has been developed to lead newcomers, browsing STAR members, or just anyone interested in what is going on physics-wise in STAR through RHIC and STAR physics introductions and then to more details about the physics in the STAR physics working groups. The new entries contain STAR physics handbooks describing the physics of each STAR physics working group with clickable transfer to the individual physics working group pages. There is also a glossary of TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms!) and a physics word search index for the physics working groups. The overall goal is to further develop descriptions of the physics and physics working group activities on the web for the benefit of all. Thanks go to Thomas Ullrich for developing the new webpages, to the physics working group convenors for putting together the group materials, and to Al Saulys for integrating it into the STAR webpages. If you have comments, suggestions, or contributions, please contact me, Ullrich, Saulys or the convenors, as appropriate.,p> With the STAR Collaboration Meeting fast approaching, I would like to bring up a few topics relevant to the meeting. As stated in the last newsletter, the emphasis of the collaboration meetings is changing. The STAR baseline detector construction is moving along well (still with much to be done), the STAR software is evolving rapidly, and new detectors are in various stages of proposal or preparation. Thus, the emphasis is focusing more on what needs to be done to complete the baseline project (note that this includes software), take data (note that this includes software), and to get the physics out of STAR (note that this includes software). So you will recognize the emphasis on software development and the physics working groups in the agenda. This is not to denigrate the work that is continuing along on the hardware; it's just that many aspects of the software either need definition or are changing and need discussion, input and work from the collaboration. This is especially critical with the Mock Data Challenge on the immediate horizon (September). Thus, at the collaboration meeting there will be the equivalent of two days dedicated to STAR Software and Computing, two days dedicated to Physics Working Group meetings, one day for STAR (subsystem) working groups, and two days of STAR plenary sessions. See the web for the preliminary agenda of the meeting. An updated agenda for the collaboration meeting will be sent out and placed on the web within a week.

With all of this to do in STAR, it is important to keep in mind the physics that we are pursuing and to discuss the best ways to approach STAR's physics. At the collaboration meeting there will be a physics session of invited talks by theorists and a panel discussion on the "Best Approach to RHI Physics with STAR." There will be three presentations on the physics of individual STAR physics working groups and there will be a few presentations from members of STAR on new physics or work on physics in STAR. As I stated in the April newsletter, the physics analysis in STAR must be carried out in the STAR Physics Working Groups. For speakers on STAR physics analysis at collaboration meetings, I ask convenors of the physics working groups for recommendations. If you are considering getting involved in STAR physics simulation and analysis, consult the webpages to find the appropriate physics working group. There are some overlaps, so consult with the physics working group convenors or me. If you do not find that your topic is incorporated into one of the physics working groups, also consult the convenors or me.

JUNIOR MEMBERS take note. If you are a student or have had a Ph.D. for less than five years you qualify as a junior member of STAR and have the privilege of special representation on the STAR Council. There are three Junior members of STAR who are elected to the Council. (See the STAR Bylaws for details) In the next few weeks there will be an election for three new junior members of the Council. At least one should be a graduate student. Janet Seger of Creighton will be handling the election this year. She has a list of those who have participated in previous junior member meetings. Please notify her if you are a new junior member, if you are no longer a junior member, or if you know of other junior members who should be on the list. Her e-mail address is jseger@creighton.edu. This is a call for nominations. I request that you send nominations to Janet Seger by July 10. There will be a call for a vote by Janet by e-mail among junior members which will close on July 17 in time for the collaboration meeting.

Excerpted from the STAR Monthly Report for May 1998.

Poletip erection is progressing slowly. Its progress coincides with the installation of the hydraulic movement system hardware. All magnet rectifiers are at BNL now. The Poletip rectifiers will be installed in early June, and the main rectifier later in the month.

An MOU between STAR and CERN outlining the loan agreement for the mapper was signed by all parties by month end. The mapper will arrive at BNL by mid-June. We are still aiming for a July 1 Magnet turn-on, but it looks very tight.

The TPC group has made great strides in procedure writing and review. The group was able to use the gas system (N2 purge), and by month end had completed their Operational Readiness Review (ORR). This will soon allow them to operate with P-10 gas and apply high voltage to sectors and field cages! This is a significant milestone for STAR!

The TPC/FEE cooling manifold installation and hook-up continued. After the cooling system has completed hydro testing in June, the green light will be on for FEE and RDO board installation.

The FEE/DAQ/TRG Online Integration Test (System Test II) began to take shape slowly late in May. Online and FEE were ready and waiting. Trigger moved some hardware into the DAQ room. Racks, temporary power, and a 24 port cisco switch (on loan from RCF) which make it possible to communicate to the world, were all available. The activity will heat up significantly by the end of June.

The STAR SAD effort made good headway. Nearly all the pieces have been completed; now the effort turns toward putting them all together in a satisfactory form by the July 1st deadline.

TPC Summary and Highlights

Magnet Summary and Highlights

Electronics Summary and Highlights

Systems Test

Front End Electronics (FEE)

Data Acquisition (DAQ)

Trigger

Slow Controls

Computing Summary and Highlights

Conventional Systems and Integration Summary and Highlights

Installation of electrical distribution panel boards in the DAQ, North platform and South platform has been completed. Power cable from the distribution panel to the electronic racks is in progress. Cable trays on the East & West face of the magnet are being installed to support experimental cable installation beginning in June.

A draft report summarizing the interlock system for STAR has been submitted to the RHIC ESC for review. Fire detection and suppression systems and gas detection systems are in the final design stage.

Chassis supports were shipped and have begun to be installed on the platform. P2 panels were also shipped. A prototype design has been developed for the rack filters.

An inspection visit was made to BNL to determine cabling readiness for June. During the visit it was discovered that the magnet steel ground cable had too much capacitance to the concrete. The routing of this cable will need to be modified. Also, the coupling from the North Platform to the magnet steel had too much capacitance coupling. It will also need to be modified.

http://penquin.phy.bnl.gov/www/rhic98/

AGS/RHIC Annual Users Meeting. July 16-17 at BNL. For further Info. please see 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. june was a continuation of what has been a wet year so far here on long island. the normal rainfall here on the island for june is 3.6 inches, we had 8.7 inches this year. the normal r ainfall for the calendar year to date is 23 inches, whereas this year we've had about 44 inches. along with the rain we've also had what seems to me to be many more thunder storms than usual. in spite of all of the rain it's summer here on the island which means warm days, with typical highs in the 80 to 90 f range, and pleasant nights with lows in the high 60 to mid 70 f range. the atlantic ocean and long island sound have both warmed up to about 65 f and are very pleasant for swimming. you might want to pack your swim suit if you're coming to the collaboration meeting in a few weeks.

As you may or may not be aware, there are monthly RHIC "endgame" meetings here at BNL. At these meetings representatives of the collider, of conventional systems, of safety and operational readiness, of the RCF, and all of the detectors, give a brief summary of how their parts of the RHIC project are progressing, and how well they're holding to schedule. The idea is to recognize and respond to any problems quickly, and keep everyone up to date. Over the course of the last two meetings there have been a few changes made to the endgame schedule. The cool down of the collider will still start in December, with turn on of the Helium refrigerators, and cooling of the rings starting January 1st 1999. The first change is that beam will not be introduced into the collider until March 1st. The accelerator will run beam tests through March 31st. At this time the beam tests will stop and the experimental groups will have 8 weeks (April and May) to roll in and set up the detectors. The commissioning run, with colliding beams and detectors in place, will start up on June 1st and run through the end of July.

The second change has to do with the start date for the first year's physics run. There is a new research facility being put in at the BNL Booster for NASA studies. To get this facility going it is estimated that the Booster will have to be offline for about 10 weeks (N.B. the booster is part of the RHIC injection system). The plan is to schedule this work to start right after the end of the RHIC run at the end of July 1999. The ten weeks gets one to mid October of 1999. The present projection is therefore that the first year's physics run will start on November 1st, as opposed to the old plan that had the physics run starting October 1st. The way I see this is that it's additional incentive to push hard for the next 11 months so that STAR is up and running as smoothly as possible so we can get a good data set in the June-July 1999 run.

I'm going to skip the progress update at the STAR site this month as many of you will be here in three weeks for the collaboration meeting and can see for yourselves. The big push in July is to complete the magnet, commission the water system, commission the magnet power supplies, install the magnet mapper, and turn on the magnet. The poletip carraiges are just about complete now. It is very likely that by the time of the collaboration meeting the Poletips, which are now in the AB, will be mounted on the carriages, and the magnet will be very close to turn on.

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.

RESEARCH ASSISTANT PROFESSORSHIP

University of Washington

The University of Washington Nuclear Physics Laboratory is recruiting to fill a Research Assistant Professorship. This is a grant supported position with a term of three years, renewable for a second three years.

We are looking for somebody who will develop a fairly independent research program in one of the areas of interest to our group, namely fundamental interactions, nuclear astrophysics, neutrino physics, heavy ion reactions, or relaivistic heavy ion reactions. The successful candidate might work in existing research programs, but would be expected tp provide significant creative input.

The ideal candidate would be an orignal thinker who has shown promise in the development of his or her own ideas. He or she would also be well focused and capable of developing a program to carry out those ideas. We would support sound original ideas enthusiastically.

People previously holding such positions at this laboratory are now typically employed in academic or national lab positions doing basic nuclear physics research, although some have gone into industrial physics where they are very successful.

We would appreciate it very much if you would inform your strong ost-docs of this opportunity, and we encourage them to contact one of us to find out more about the position.

We also have a post-doc opening. We would appreciate it if you would give the enclosed notive to potential candidates.

      Derek W. Storm                   R. G. Hamish Robertson
      Research Professor               Professor
      Executive Director, NPL          Scientific Director, NPL

POSTDOCTORAL POSITION AVAILABLE

Experimental Nuclear Physics

University of Washington

The University of Washington Nucear Physics Laboratory invites applicants for two Postdoctoral Research Associate positions. We are presently beginning a measurement of the Be7(p,gamma) reaction at low energies (in collaboration with TRIUMF) to determine the astrophysical S-factor. The first position, available now, is for candidates who are strongly interested in this experiment. The successful candidate will have an opportunity to play a leadership role in this measurement.

For the second position, starting near the beginning of 1999, we are seeking strong candidates with interests either in experimental nuclear astrophysics, weak interactions, including neutrino physics, or heavy ion reaction dynamics. In addition to the Be7(p,gamma) measurement, we are engaged inprecision experiments in beta decay, related to nuclear astrophysics, and to tests of fundamental symmetries and the standard model. In heavy ion reaction dynamics our interests include determining the time scales for various stags of fusion and fusion-fission reactions, sub-barrier fusion, and properties of hot nuclear matter. Most of this work involves our local accelerator. Using outside facilities, we have a major involvement in SNO and are part of the NA49 and STAR collaborations. The successful candidates will have the possibility of initiating their own research. A Ph.D in experimental physics is required. Interested applicants should indicate their primary area of interest, send a c.v. and publications list, and arrange 3 letters of reference to be sent to Prof. Derek Storm, NPL, Box 354290, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195. The University of Washington is building a culturally diverse faculty and strongly encourages applications from female and minority candidates.

POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH POSITION

RELATIVISTIC HEAVY ION COLLISIONS

The Ohio State University

The Relativistic Heavy Ion group at The Ohio State University invites applications for a postdoctoral research position. The focus of the work will be on simulation and analysis of data from the tracking detectors of the STAR experiment at RHIC, scheduled to take data in 1999. STAR employs tracking, time-of-flight, and calorimetric detectors to search for and study quark-gluon plasma (QGP) formation at high energy density. The successful candidate must have a Ph.D in physics or related field, and should have strong programming skills and experience in experimental relativistic heavy ion physics. Depending on the experience and desires of the candidate, it is envisioned that the candidate may spend a significant amount of his or her time at Brookhaven, although this can be discussed. The OSU Relativistic Heavy Ion Group currently consists of three faculty members, three postdoctoral researchers, four graduate students, two undergraduate students and an electrical engineer. Interested candidates should send an application consisting of a curriculum vitae, a description of research experience and interest and the names of three references to Professor Michael A. Lisa, Department of Physics, Smith Laboratory, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210 or via E-mail to lisa@mps.ohio-state.edu. The Ohio State University is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer and encourages all qualified candidates to apply.

7. New STAR NOTES since the last Newsletter