Physics with the sPHENIX Event Plane Detector

The new sPHENIX Event Plane Detector (sEPD) will enable measurements of both the centrality and event plane outside the mid-rapidity region of collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). Centrality is an experimental measurement used to estimate impact parameter, a vector that represents the distance between the center of two colliding nuclei. The Event Plane is the experimental measurement used to estimate the reaction plane of a collision. With a pseudorapidity acceptance in the range 2.1 < │η│ < 4.9, the event plane and centrality determination will avoid auto-correlations with the jet, heavy flavor and other observables measured by sPHENIX. This poster will explore the benefits of using the sEPD to determine these key parameters in our studies. This material is based upon work supported the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 2117773.