The TOFp/pVPD time-of-flight system for STAR

A time-of-flight system was constructed for the STAR Experiment for the direct identification of hadrons produced in 197Au+197Au collisions at RHIC. The system consists of two separate detector subsystems, one called the Pseudo Vertex Position Detector (pVPD, the “start” detector) and the other called the Time of Flight Patch (TOFp, the “stop” detector). Each detector is based on conventional scintillator/phototube technology and includes custom high-performance front-end electronics and a common CAMAC-based digitization and read-out. The design of the system and its performance during the 2001 RHIC run will be described. The start resolution attained by the pVPD was 24 ps, implying a pVPD single-detector resolution of 58 ps. The total time resolution of the system averaged over all detector channels was 87 ps, allowing direct π/K/p discrimination for momenta up to ∼1.8 GeV/c, and direct (π+K)/p discrimination up to ∼3 GeV/c.