Speaker
Description
The sPHENIX experiment completed construction at Brookhaven National Lab's RHIC facility in 2023 and has now completed its first full year of data taking, with a physics program that will probe the nature of QGP through jet, upsilon and open heavy flavor final states over a broad range of pT. The experiment's Time Projection Chamber covers |\eta|<1.1 and full azimuth, and serves as its main tracking detector for particle identification and momentum resolution. The readout plane uses quadruple-GEMs for amplification and to mitigate ion backflow, but the detector also includes a suite of calibration systems to monitor and correct distortions due to space charge, as well as other static and time-varying effects. This talk will review the distortion correction scheme as well as the design and status of its components, focusing on the two independent laser systems: The high-rate diffuse laser flash which illuminates a test pattern on the TPC's central membrane, and the steerable 'direct' laser system which is designed to inject tracks at known trajectories.
