Speaker
Description
The sPHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider is the newest experiment at a hadron collider since the switch on of the LHC. It completed its commissioning in October 2024 and is dedicated to precision probes of Quark-Gluon Plasma. To achieve this goal, sPHENIX utilises a monolithic active pixel vertex detector (MVTX). This detector enables precision measurements of beauty and charm hadrons produced in proton-proton and gold-gold collisions. The MVTX contains 432 MAPS ASICs, each 50 microns thick and reading out at 600 MB/s. The MVTX is capable of operating in a streaming mode which allows for the collection of high statistics open heavy flavor data without a trigger bias, enriching the low pT reach of sPHENIX. This presentation will discuss the design, operation and performance of the detector, including overcoming challanges faced from backgrounds in the harsh conditions experienced from heavy ion beams.
