The high transverse momentum non-photonic electron measurements in Au + Au collisions at sNN = 200 GeV at RHIC
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: 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: 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: 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: 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: Recent Heavy Flavor Results at RHIC
abstract: We summarize the recent experimental results of heavy favor physics from the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) in Brookhaven National Lab (BNL) at Long Island, New York, USA.We will discuss the directly reconstructed open charm mesons as well as electrons from heavy favor hadron decays. The charm and bottom quark production cross-sections have also been measured. We will also discuss JPsi and Upsilon states in p+p and heavy ion collisions. The studies described here were carried out and reported by the STAR and PHENIX collaborations at RHIC.

title: NEW HOM COUPLER DESIGN FOR HIGH CURRENT SRF CAVITY
abstract: Damping higher order modes (HOMs) significantly to avoid beam instability is a challenge for the high current Energy Recovery Linac-based eRHIC at BNL. To avoid the overheating effect and high tuning sensitivity, current, a new band-stop HOM coupler is being designed at BNL. The new HOM coupler has a bandwidth of tens of MHz to reject the fundamental mode, which will avoid overheating due to fundamental frequency shifting because of cooling down. In addition, the S21 parameter of the band-pass filter is nearly flat from first higher order mode to 5 times the fundamental frequency. The simulation results showed that the new couplers effectively damp HOMs for the eRHIC cavity with enlarged beam tube diameter and 2 120{sup o} HOM couplers at each side of cavity. This paper presents the design of HOM coupler, HOM damping capacity for eRHIC cavity and prototype test results.

title: Higher-order-mode absorbers for energy recovery linac cryomodules at Brookhaven National Laboratory
abstract: Several future accelerator projects at Brookhaven for the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) are based on energy recovery linacs (ERLs) with high-charge high-current electron beams. Their stable operation mandates effective higher-order-mode (HOM) damping. The development of HOM dampers for these projects is pursued actively at this laboratory. Strong HOM damping was experimentally demonstrated both at room and at superconducting (SC) temperatures in a prototype research and development (RD this will impose additional constraints and complications. This paper presents the results of simulations and measurements of several damper configurations.

title: Charged black hole with a scalar hair in (2+1) dimensions
abstract: We obtain and analyze an exact solution to Einstein-Maxwell-scalar theory in (2+1) dimensions, in which the scalar field couples to gravity in a nonminimal way, and it also couples to itself with the self-interacting potential solely determined by the metric ansatz. A negative cosmological constant naturally emerges as a constant term in the scalar potential. The metric is static and circularly symmetric and contains a curvature singularity at the origin. The conditions for the metric to contain 0, 1 and 2 horizons are identified, and the effects of the scalar and electric charges on the size of the black hole radius are discussed. Under proper choices of parameters, the metric degenerates into some previously known solutions in (2 + 1)-dimensional gravity.

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: Progress on the high-current 704 MHz superconducting RF cavity at BNL
abstract: The 704 MHz high current superconducting cavity has been designed with consideration of both performance of fundamental mode and damping of higher order modes. A copper prototype cavity was fabricated by AES and delivered to BNL. RF measurements were carried out on this prototype cavity, including fundamental pass-band and HOM spectrum measurements, HOM studies using bead-pull setup, prototyping of antenna-type HOM couplers. The measurements show that the cavity has very good damping for the higher-order modes, which was one of the main goals for the high current cavity design. 3D cavity models were simulated with Omega3P code developed by SLAC to compare with the measurements. The paper describes the cavity design, RF measurement setups and results for the copper prototype. The progress with the niobium cavity fabrication will also be described.