Abstract
Charmonium production in heavy ion collisions is considered as an important diagnostic probe for studying the phase diagram of strongly interacting matter for potential phase transitions. The interpretation of existing data from the CERN SPS is hampered by a lack of knowledge on the properties of open charm particle production in the fireball. Moreover, open charm production in heavy ion collisions by itself is poorly understood. To overcome this obstacle, the NA61/SHINE was equipped with a Small Acceptance Vertex Detector (SAVD), which is predicted to make the experiment sensitive to open charm mesons produced in A-A collisions at the SPS top energy. This paper will introduce the concept and the hardware of the SAVD. Moreover, first running experience as obtained in a commissioning run with a 150 AGeV/c Pb+Pb collision system will be reported.
Highlights
The NA61/SHINE [1] experiment is a fixed target hadron spectrometer located at the CERN SPS
Since 2009, NA61/SHINE is undertaking a systematic scan of the nuclear phase diagram, which relies on measurements with different beam energies and system sizes
The Small Acceptance Vertex Detector (SAVD) of the NA61/SHINE experiment was build to provide the necessary data by means of doing direct measurements of open charm mesons via their hadronic decay channel (e.g. D0 → K− + π+) at the SPS top energies
Summary
The NA61/SHINE [1] experiment is a fixed target hadron spectrometer located at the CERN SPS. The experiment can be operated with hadron (π, K, p) and heavy ion beams (Be, Ar, Xe, Pb). Since 2009, NA61/SHINE is undertaking a systematic scan of the nuclear phase diagram, which relies on measurements with different beam energies and system sizes. This phase scan aims for obtaining an understanding of a potential first order phase transition between hadronic matter and QGP and the identification of the predicted critical endpoint of this phase transition. The Small Acceptance Vertex Detector (SAVD) of the NA61/SHINE experiment was build to provide the necessary data by means of doing direct measurements of open charm mesons via their hadronic decay channel (e.g. D0 → K− + π+) at the SPS top energies
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