K. Pope

PHENIX on-line and off-line computing

Data handling in PHENIX is carried out by the On-Line Computing System (ONCS) and Off-Line Computing System (Off-Line). ONCS provides the overall control and monitoring of the front-end electronics, trigger and data acquisition system and detector ancillary systems. It configures and initializes the on-line system, monitors and controls the data flow, coordinates calibration processes, interlocks the data acquisition process with the slow control subsystems and performs a number of other functions. ONCS uses CORBA software to monitor and control the hardware. Off-Line provides all aspects of data handling not directly connected to the collection of data and monitoring, such as event simulation and reconstruction, data analysis and information management. The impact of the unprecedented data volumes on the design is presented, along with a detailed discussion of the tasks and methods of simulating, obtaining and monitoring the data.

Electron identification in the PHENIX experiment using a tracking TRD

Abstract Measuring dielectron physics signals at RHIC will require the ability to separate electrons from pions to a level of better than 2 × 10−4 over momenta ranging from 0.1 GeV c to 5.0 GeV c . Particle identification over this momentum range is realized in the PHENIX detector at RHIC by a combination of detector subsystems, one of which is a tracking TRD. The PHENIX tracking TRD allows electron-pion separation utilizing both TR and dE/dx information, while simultaneously tracking charged particles with good position accuracy. The electron-pion separation of this device is better than 3 × 10−3 for particles with momenta ranging from 250 MeV c to over 10 GeV c .