Design and Beam Test Results for the 2-D Projective sPHENIX Electromagnetic Calorimeter Prototype

sPHENIX is a new experiment under construction for the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory which will study the quark-gluon plasma to further the understanding of quantum chromodynamics (QCP) matter and interactions. A prototype of the sPHENIX electromagnetic calorimeter (EMCal) was tested at the Fermilab Test Beam Facility in Spring 2018 as experiment T-1044. The EMCal prototype corresponds to a solid angle of Δη × Δφ = 0.2 × 0.2 centered at pseudo-rapidity η = 1. The prototype consists of scintillating fibers embedded in a mix of tungsten powder and epoxy. The fibers project back approximately to the center of the sPHENIX detector, giving 2-D projectivity. The energy response of the EMCal prototype was studied as a function of position and input energy. The energy resolution of the EMCal prototype was obtained after applying a position-dependent energy correction and a beam profile correction. Two separate position-dependent corrections were considered. The EMCal energy resolution was found to be σ(E)/〈E〉 = 3.5(0.1) ⊕ 13.3(0.2)/√E based on the hodoscope position-dependent correction, and σ(E)/〈E〉 = 3.0(0.1) ⊕ 15.4(0.3)/√E based on the cluster position-dependent correction. These energy resolution results meet the requirements of the sPHENIX physics program.