The STAR time projection chamber: a unique tool for studying high multiplicity events at RHIC

Abstract

The STAR Time Projection Chamber (TPC) is used to record collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The TPC is the central element in a suite of detectors that surrounds the interaction vertex. The TPC provides complete coverage around the beam-line, and provides complete tracking for charged particles within ± 1.8 units of pseudo-rapidity of the center-of-mass frame. Charged particles with momenta greater than 100 MeV/c are Preprint submitted to Elsevier Science 5 February 2008 recorded. Multiplicities in excess of 3,000 tracks per event are routinely reconstructed in the software. The TPC measures 4 m in diameter by 4.2 m long, making it the largest TPC in the world.

Scaling of the charm cross-section and modification of charm pT spectra at RHIC

“…The TPC is the main tracking device in STAR, which provides particle identification within a pseudorapidity coverage of |η|<1.5 and full azimuthal coverage [4]. In this study the measurements of the ionization energy loss (dE/dx) of charged tracks in the TPC gas is used to identify pions, kaons, electrons and muons.…”

Development of a time projection chamber using gas electron multipliers (GEM–TPC)

“…Ar(90%)-CH 4 (10%) is widely used in TPCs and GEMs [11,17,18]. A fast drift velocity that peaks at a low electric field of 130 V/cm is the primary attribute of Ar-CH 4 , and such a low electric field is an advantage for detector operation.…”

Search for Chiral Magnetic Effects in High-Energy Nuclear Collisions

“…3, the measurements of charge separation correlator are used to search for CME and Local Parity Violating (LPV) effects. Charged particle tracks were reconstructed in STAR TPC [20], with pseudorapidity cut |η| < 1. The centrality definition and track quality cuts are the same as in Ref.…”