The
Solenoidal Tracker at RHIC (STAR) is a detector which specializes in tracking the
thousands of particles produced by each ion collision at RHIC. Weighing
1,200 tons and as large as a house (note ladder in image at left),
STAR is a massive detector. It is used to search for signatures of the form of matter
that RHIC was designed to create: the quark-gluon plasma. It is also used to
investigate the behavior of matter at high energy densities by making
measurements over a large area.
STAR's "heart" is the Time Projection
Chamber, made of many electronic systems, which tracks and
identifies particles emerging from heavy ion collisions. As each collision occurs, STAR measures many
parameters simultaneously to look for signs of the quark-gluon plasma.
By using powerful computers to reconstruct the sub-atomic interactions
which produce the particles emerging from each collision, the detector
can, in a sense, run time backwards. This process can be compared
to examining the final products which come out of a factory and
trying to determine what kinds of machines produced them.
The goal of STAR is to obtain a fundamental
understanding of the structure of interactions between
particles called hadrons, which are made of quarks and gluons.
The STAR team is composed of over 400 scientists
and engineers from 33 institutions in 7 countries. STAR is located at
the 6 o'clock position on the RHIC ring.
STAR
experimental group home page
