Conceptual design report for the Solenoidal Tracker at RHIC

The Solenoidal Tracker At RHIC (STAR) will search for signatures of quark-gluon plasma (QGP) formation and investigate the behavior of strongly interacting matter at high energy density. The emphasis win be the correlation of many observables on an event-by-event basis. In the absence of definitive signatures for the QGP, it is imperative that such correlations be used to identify special events and possible signatures. This requires a flexible detection system that can simultaneously measure many experimental observables. The physics goals dictate the design of star and it's experiment. To meet the design criteria, tracking, momentum analysis, and particle identification of most of the charged particles at midrapidity are necessary. The tracking must operate in conditions at higher than the expected maximum charged particle multiplicities for central Au + Au collisions. Particle identification of pions/kaons for p < 0.7 GeV/c and kaons/protons for p < 1 GeV/c, as well as measurement of decay particles and reconstruction of secondary vertices will be possible. A two-track resolution of 2 cm at 2 m radial distance from, the interaction is expected. Momentum resolution of Δp/p ∼ 0.02 at p = 0.1 GeV/c is required to accomplish the physics, and,Δp/p of several percent at p = 10 GeV/c is sufficient to accurately measure the rapidly failing spectra at high Pt and particles from mini-jets and jets