Observation of an energy-dependent difference in elliptic flow between particles and antiparticles in relativistic heavy ion collisions.
Elliptic flow (v(2)) values for identified particles at midrapidity in Au + Au collisions, measured by the STAR experiment in the beam energy scan at RHIC at sqrt[s(NN)] = 7.7-62.4 GeV, are presented. A beam-energy-dependent difference of the values of v(2) between particles and corresponding antiparticles was observed. The difference increases with decreasing beam energy and is larger for baryons compared to mesons. This implies that, at lower energies, particles and antiparticles are not consistent with the universal number-of-constituent-quark scaling of v(2) that was observed at sqrt[s(NN)] = 200 GeV.

title: T-1018 UCLA Spacordion Tungsten Powder Calorimeter
abstract: 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: System-size dependence of transverse momentum correlations at √s NN=62.4 and 200 GeV at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider
abstract: We present a study of the average transverse momentum ($p_t$) fluctuations and $p_t$ correlations for charged particles produced in Cu+Cu collisions at midrapidity for $\sqrt{s_{NN}} =$ 62.4 and 200 GeV. These results are compared with those published for Au+Au collisions at the same energies, to explore the system size dependence. In addition to the collision energy and system size dependence, the $p_t$ correlation results have been studied as functions of the collision centralities, the ranges in $p_t$, the pseudorapidity $\eta$, and the azimuthal angle $\phi$. The square root of the measured $p_t$ correlations when scaled by mean $p_t$ is found to be independent of both colliding beam energy and system size studied. Transport-based model calculations are found to have a better quantitative agreement with the measurements compared to models which incorporate only jetlike correlations.

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: Results of R&D on a new construction technique for W/ScFi Calorimeters
abstract: We report on results of an R&D program to develop new, simple and cost effective techniques to build compact sampling calorimeters utilizing tungsten powder and scintillating fibers. Such calorimeter detectors are under consideration for experiments at the planned Electron Ion Collider and the future upgrade of the STAR experiment at RHIC (BNL). In the first year of this R&D project we built two prototypes of very compact electromagnetic calorimeters and tested them at FNAL test beam T1018 in January 2012. Details of the construction technique, results of the test run and future plan will be presented.

title: Measurements of Dihadron Correlations Relative to the Event Plane in Au+Au Collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$ GeV
abstract: Dihadron azimuthal correlations containing a high transverse momentum ($\pt$)
trigger particle are sensitive to the properties of the nuclear medium created
at RHIC through the strong interactions occurring between the traversing parton
and the medium, i.e. jet-quenching. Previous measurements revealed a strong
modification to dihadron azimuthal correlations in Au+Au collisions with
respect to \pp\ and \dAu\ collisions. The modification increases with the
collision centrality, suggesting a path-length dependence to the jet-quenching
effect. This paper reports STAR measurements of dihadron azimuthal correlations
in mid-central (20-60\%) Au+Au collisions at $\snn=200$~GeV as a function of
the trigger particle's azimuthal angle relative to the event plane,
$\phis=|\phit-\psiEP|$. The azimuthal correlation is studied as a function of
both the trigger and associated particle $\pt$. The subtractions of the
combinatorial background and anisotropic flow, assuming Zero Yield At Minimum
(\zyam), are described. The away-side correlation is strongly modified, and the
modification varies with $\phis$, which is expected to be related to the
path-length that the away-side parton traverses. The pseudo-rapidity ($\deta$)
dependence of the near-side correlation, sensitive to long range $\deta$
correlations (the ridge), is also investigated. The ridge and jet-like
components of the near-side correlation are studied as a function of $\phis$.
The ridge appears to drop with increasing $\phis$ while the jet-like component
remains approximately constant.

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.

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: 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: Applying Bayesian neural networks to separate neutrino events from backgrounds in reactor neutrino experiments
abstract: A toy detector has been designed to simulate central detectors in reactor neutrino experiments in the paper. The samples of neutrino events and three major backgrounds from the Monte-Carlo simulation of the toy detector are generated in the signal region. The Bayesian Neural Networks (BNN) are applied to separate neutrino events from backgrounds in reactor neutrino experiments. As a result, the most neutrino events and uncorrelated background events in the signal region can be identified with BNN, and the part events each of the fast neutron and 8He/9Li backgrounds in the signal region can be identified with BNN. Then, the signal to noise ratio in the signal region is enhanced with BNN. The neutrino discrimination increases with the increase of the neutrino rate in the training sample. However, the background discriminations decrease with the decrease of the background rate in the training sample.

title: Design, simulation and conditioning of the fundamental power couplers for BNL SRF gun
abstract: The 704 MHz SRF gun for the BNL Energy Recovery Linac (ERL) prototype uses two fundamental power couplers (FPCs) to deliver up to 1 MW of CW RF power to the half-cell cavity. To prepare the couplers for high-power RF service and process multipacting, the FPCs should be conditioned prior to installation into the gun cryomodule. A room-temperature test stand was configured for conditioning FPCs in full reflection regime with varied phase of the reflecting wave. The FPCs have been conditioned up to 250 kW in pulse mode and 125 kW in CW mode. The multipacting simulations were carried out with Track3P code developed at SLAC. The simulations matched the experimental results very well. This paper presents the FPC RF and thermal design, multipacting simulations and conditioning of the BNL gun FPCs.