T-1018 UCLA Spacordion Tungsten Powder Calorimeter
The present experiments at the BNL-RHIC facility are evolving towards physics goals which require the detection of medium energy electromagnetic particles (photons, electrons, neutral pions, eta mesons, etc.), especially at forward angles. New detectors will place increasing demands on energy resolution, hadron rejection and two-photon resolution and will require large area, high performance electromagnetic calorimeters in a variety of geometries. In the immediate future, either RHIC or JLAB will propose a facility upgrade (Electron-Ion Collider, or EIC) with physics goals such as electron-heavy ion collisions (or p-A collisions) with a wide range of calorimeter requirements. An R and D program based at Brookhaven National Laboratory has awarded the group funding of approximately $110,000 to develop new types of calorimeters for EIC experiments. The UCLA group is developing a method to manufacture very flexible and cost-effective, yet high quality calorimeters based on scintillating fibers and tungsten powder. The design and features of the calorimeter can be briefly stated as follows: an arbitrarily large number of small diameter fibers (< 0.5 mm) are assembled as a matrix and held rigidly in place by a set of precision screens inside an empty container. The container is then back-filled with tungsten powder, compacted onmore » a vibrating table and infused with epoxy under vacuum. The container is then removed. The resulting sub-modules are extremely uniform and achieve roughly the density of pure Lead. The sub-modules are stacked together to achieve a final detector of the desired shape. There is no dead space between sub-modules and the fibers can be in an accordion geometry bent to prevent 'channeling' of the particles due to accidental alignment of their track with the module axis. This technology has the advantage of being modular and inexpensive to the point where the construction work may be divided among groups the size of typical university physics departments. This test run if a proof-of-principle and allows the experiment to improve the design and performance of the final detectors. The experimenters have constructed prototypes of three different designs in order to investigate the characteristics of practical devices such as uniformity, linearity, longitudinal and transverse shower shapes. The first design is an array of 4 x 4 modules intended as a prototype for a practical device to be installed within two years in the STAR experimental hall. The modules are a combination of a spaghetti calorimeter and an accordion (hence 'spacordion'). Each sub-module is 1.44 cm x 1.44 cm x 15 cm and constructed individually. The second design is a prototype of 4 sub-modules constructed in one step, using a different construction technique. The third design is a set of single sub-modules each intended to test variations of the tungsten powder/embedded fiber concept by enhancing the light output/density using liquid scintillator or heavy liquids.« less

title: An Experimental Exploration of the QCD Phase Diagram: The Search for the Critical Point and the Onset of De-confinement
abstract: The QCD phase diagram lies at the heart of what the RHIC Physics Program is
all about. While RHIC has been operating very successfully at or close to its
maximum energy for almost a decade, it has become clear that this collider can
also be operated at lower energies down to 5 GeV without extensive upgrades. An
exploration of the full region of beam energies available at the RHIC facility
is imperative. The STAR detector, due to its large uniform acceptance and
excellent particle identification capabilities, is uniquely positioned to carry
out this program in depth and detail. The first exploratory beam energy scan
(BES) run at RHIC took place in 2010 (Run 10), since several STAR upgrades,
most importantly a full barrel Time of Flight detector, are now completed which
add new capabilities important for the interesting physics at BES energies. In
this document we discuss current proposed measurements, with estimations of the
accuracy of the measurements given an assumed event count at each beam energy.

title: Higher moments of net proton multiplicity distributions at RHIC.
abstract: We report the first measurements of the kurtosis (κ), skewness (S), and variance (σ2) of net-proton multiplicity (Np-Np) distributions at midrapidity for Au+Au collisions at square root of s(NN)=19.6, 62.4, and 200 GeV corresponding to baryon chemical potentials (μB) between 200 and 20 MeV. Our measurements of the products κσ2 and Sσ, which can be related to theoretical calculations sensitive to baryon number susceptibilities and long-range correlations, are constant as functions of collision centrality. We compare these products with results from lattice QCD and various models without a critical point and study the square root of s(NN) dependence of κσ2. From the measurements at the three beam energies, we find no evidence for a critical point in the QCD phase diagram for μB below 200 MeV.

title: The high transverse momentum non-photonic electron measurements in Au + Au collisions at sNN = 200 GeV at RHIC
abstract: We present preliminary results of Non-Photonic Electron (NPE) production, NPE-hadron azimuthal correlation as well as NPE elliptic flow studies at midrapidity using a data set with high statistics and low photon conversion background from Au + Au collisions at sNN = 200 GeV collected at RHIC in Run 2010.

title: Measurements of $D^{0}$ and $D^{*}$ Production in $p$ + $p$ Collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 200 GeV
abstract: We report measurements of charmed-hadron ($D^{0}$, $D^{*}$) production cross sections at mid-rapidity in $p$ + $p$ collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 200 GeV by the STAR experiment. Charmed hadrons were reconstructed via the hadronic decays $D^{0}\rightarrow K^{-}\pi^{+}$, $D^{*+}\rightarrow D^{0}\pi^{+}\rightarrow K^{-}\pi^{+}\pi^{+}$ and their charge conjugates, covering the $p_T$ range of 0.6$-$2.0 GeV/$c$ and 2.0$-$6.0 GeV/$c$ for $D^{0}$ and $D^{*+}$, respectively. From this analysis, the charm-pair production cross section at mid-rapidity is $d\sigma/dy|_{y=0}^{c\bar{c}}$ = 170 $\pm$ 45 (stat.) $^{+38}_{-59}$ (sys.) $\mu$b. The extracted charm-pair cross section is compared to perturbative QCD calculations. The transverse momentum differential cross section is found to be consistent with the upper bound of a Fixed-Order Next-to-Leading Logarithm calculation.

title: Energy and system-size dependence of two- and four-particle $v_2$ measurements in heavy-ion collisions at RHIC and their implications on flow fluctuations and nonflow
abstract: We present STAR measurements of azimuthal anisotropy by means of the two- and four-particle cumulants $v_2$ ($v_2\{2\}$ and $v_2\{4\}$) for Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions at center of mass energies $\sqrt{s_{_{\mathrm{NN}}}} = 62.4$ and 200 GeV. The difference between $v_2\{2\}^2$ and $v_2\{4\}^2$ is related to $v_{2}$ fluctuations ($\sigma_{v_2}$) and nonflow $(\delta_{2})$. We present an upper limit to $\sigma_{v_2}/v_{2}$. Following the assumption that eccentricity fluctuations $\sigma_{\epsilon}$ dominate $v_2$ fluctuations $\frac{\sigma_{v_2}}{v_2} \approx \frac{\sigma_{\epsilon}}{\epsilon}$ we deduce the nonflow implied for several models of eccentricity fluctuations that would be required for consistency with $v_2\{2\}$ and $v_2\{4\}$. We also present results on the ratio of $v_2$ to eccentricity.

title: Note on Chiral Symmetry Breaking from Intersecting Branes
abstract: In this paper, we will consider the chiral symmetry breaking in the holographic model constructed from the intersecting brane configuration, and investigate the Nambu-Goldstone bosons associated with this symmetry breaking.

title: Novel rotating hairy black hole in (2+1)-dimensions
abstract: We present some novel rotating hairy black hole metric in (2 + 1) dimensions, which is an exact solution to the field equations of the Einstein-scalar-AdS theory with a non-minimal coupling. The scalar potential is determined by the metric ansatz and consistency of the field equations and cannot be prescribed arbitrarily. In the simplified, critical case, the scalar potential contains two independent constant parameters, which are respectively related to the mass and angular momentum of the black hole in a particular way. As long as the angular momentum does not vanish, the metric can have zero, one or two horizons. The case with no horizon is physically uninteresting because of the curvature singularity lying at the origin. We identify the necessary conditions for at least one horizon to be present in the solution, which imposes some bound on the mass-angular momentum ratio. For some particular choice of parameters our solution degenerates into some previously known black hole solutions.

title: Status of high current R&D Energy Recovery LINAC at Brookhaven National Laboratory
abstract: An ampere class 20 MeV superconducting Energy Recovery Linac (ERL) is under construction at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) for testing of concepts relevant for high-energy coherent electron cooling and electron-ion colliders. One of the goals is to demonstrate an electron beam with high charge per bunch ({approx} 5 nC) and low normalized emittance ({approx} 5 mm-mrad) at an energy of 20 MeV. Flexible lattice of ERL loop provides a test-bed for investigating issues of transverse and longitudinal instabilities, and diagnostics for intense CW e-beam. The superconducting 703 MHz RF photoinjector is considered as an electron source for such a facility. We will start with a straight pass (gun - 5 cell cavity - beam stop) test for the SRF Gun performance studies. Later, we will install and test a novel injection line concept for emittance preservation in a lower energy merger. In this paper we present the status and our plans for construction and commissioning of this facility.

title: Gauss–Bonnet coupling constant as a free thermodynamical variable and the associated criticality
abstract: The thermodynamic phase space of Gauss–Bonnet (GB) AdS black holes is extended, taking the inverse of the GB coupling constant as a new thermodynamic pressure $$P_{\mathrm {GB}}$$PGB. We studied the critical behavior associated with $$P_{\mathrm {GB}}$$PGB in the extended thermodynamic phase space at fixed cosmological constant and electric charge. The result shows that when the black holes are neutral, the associated critical points can only exist in five dimensional GB-AdS black holes with spherical topology, and the corresponding critical exponents are identical to those for the Van der Waals system. For charged GB-AdS black holes, it is shown that there can be only one critical point in five dimensions (for black holes with either spherical or hyperbolic topologies), which also requires the electric charge to be bounded within some appropriate range; while in $$d>5$$d>5 dimensions, there can be up to two different critical points at the same electric charge, and the phase transition can occur only at temperatures which are not in between the two critical values.

title: Beam break-up estimates for the ERL at BNL
abstract: A prototype Ampere-class superconducting energy recovery linac (ERL) is under advanced construction at BNL. The ERL facility is comprised of a five-cell SC Linac plus a half-cell SC photo-injector RF electron gun, both operating at 703.75 MHz. The facility is designed for either a high-current mode of operation up to 0.5 A at 703.75 MHz or a high-bunch-charge mode of 5 nC at 10 MHz bunch frequency. The R&D facility serves a test bed for an envisioned electron-hadron collider, eRHIC. The high-current, high-charge operating parameters make effective higher-order-mode (HOM) damping mandatory, and requires the determination of HOM tolerances for a cavity upgrade. The niobium cavity has been tested at superconducting temperatures and has provided measured quality factors (Q) for a large number of modes. These numbers were used for the estimate of the beam breakup instability (BBU). The facility will be assembled with a highly flexible lattice covering a vast operational parameter space for verification of the estimates and to serve as a test bed for the concepts directed at future projects.