The first suite of physics results from sPHENIX

by Blair Seidlitz (Columbia University)

Tuesday May 6, 2025, 11:00 AM → 1:00 PM US/Eastern

The sPHENIX detector, located at the RHIC, just finished recording its first physics data set.  This dataset includes high-statistics proton-proton collisions at 200 GeV as well as Au+Au collision at 200 GeV. The sPHENIX experiment is particularly interested in physics measurements centering around jet structure, heavy flavor and quarkonia, and proton spin structure, with an emphasis on how these topics can be used to probe the properties of the quark gluon plasma.  Within the last month, many of the first preliminary physics results striving towards these goals have been released.  This seminar presents all these measurements. Including the measurement of jet spectra and dijet properties as well as direct-photon spectra all in p+p.  Also shown is the neutral-meson single-spin asymmetry in polarized p+p.  Third, tracking performance will be highlighted in progress towards precision high-statistics heavy flavor measurements, including first D meson and Lambda charm baryon mass peaks.  Finally, the first two sPHENIX publications are highlighted which are two “standard-candle” measurements of transverse energy and charged particle density in Au+Au collisions.   These results demonstrate sPHENIX’s capabilities and potential for detailed studies of the interaction of these probes and the quark gluon plasma with the up-coming high-statistics Au+Au  RHIC running. 

BNL_NPS_BSeidlitz.pdf