sPHENIX - a new jet detector at RHIC

sPHENIX is a new state-of-the-art detector optimized for measurements of jets and heavy flavor which will take advantage of increased luminosity available at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). It comprises vertex tracking and hadronic and electromagnetic calorimetry. This enables studies of jet structure, heavy flavor jets, open heavy flavor, and quarkonia, the pillars of the sPHENIX physics program. These measurements will complement measurements at the LHC and enable determination of the properties of the medium created in heavy ion collisions to high precision, including its temperature dependence. This talk will discuss the detector design and key measurements enabled by the new detector, as well as the status of the project itself. (paper)