Speaker
Description
The sPHENIX experiment is a new detector at BNL's Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. Designed for studies of the quark-gluon plasma produced in heavy ion collisions with high-pT jet and heavy flavor probes, sPHENIX will also enable an array of cold QCD measurements in polarized p+p and p+Au collisions. The measurements of transverse spin asymmetries in the production of photons, mesons, and jets will contribute to our understanding of transverse-momentum dependent (TMD) and related collinear higher-twist effects in the nucleon, with the possibility of also studying effects of nuclear modification. The jet physics program particularly relies on the sPHENIX calorimeter system, which consists of large-acceptance electromagnetic and hadronic sections designed for high-resolution measurements of photons, electrons, hadrons, and jets. This poster will comment on the cold QCD opportunities at sPHENIX and will present the status of commissioning the electromagnetic calorimeter, which is in full swing as of summer 2023 with the first Au+Au beams colliding in sPHENIX.
