Analysis of Neutral Pion Asymmetry with the STAR Detector
Faculty Sponsor
Shirvel Stanislaus
College
Arts and Sciences
Discipline(s)
The Department of Physics and Astronomy
Presentation Type
Poster Presentation
Symposium Date
Spring 5-3-2018
Abstract
Although the quark contribution to the proton’s spin is well known, the gluon contribution to the spin is relatively poorly constrained. In order to further constrain this gluon contribution, part of the Solenoidal Tracker at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) (STAR) collaboration analyzes collisions between different alignments of longitudinally spin-polarized proton beams. These collisions produce varying amounts of neutral pions which most commonly decay into photon pairs, some of which are then identified in the Endcap Electro Magnetic Calorimeter (EEMC) within the STAR detector. The EEMC makes measurements in a pseudorapidity range of 1 < η ≤ 2 with full azimuthal coverage. The Shower Maximum Detector (SMD) is particularly useful in determining the positions of energy readings in the EEMC which we label as clusters. These clusters, caused by photons, are then used to reconstruct the neutral pions. From these reconstructed pions, a corrected number of pions is determined by fitting templates from Monte Carlo simulation to the pion mass distribution data. We will describe the current state of the analysis including cluster identification and neutral pion data and simulation.
Recommended Citation
Hauck, Alec J. and Strand, Noah, "Analysis of Neutral Pion Asymmetry with the STAR Detector" (2018). Symposium on Undergraduate Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE). 689.
https://scholar.valpo.edu/cus/689
