Reconstructing γ→e⁺e^- with the sPHENIX detector at RHIC

A photon encountering high density matter will probabilistically undergo pair production, resulting in a lepton-antilepton pair that can be detected to reconstruct the incident photon. This analysis uses proton-proton (pp) data collected by the sPHENIX detector in 2024 to reconstruct conversion photons via the dielectron channel. Electron and positron candidates are identified using an invariant mass analysis completed with position and momentum data collected by sPHENIX’s Time Projection Chamber (TPC). The purity of the daughter candidates is verified using their energy to momentum ratio, E/p. The energy information was collected by the sPHENIX Electromagnetic Calorimeter (EMCal), and this study showcases the ability for sPHENIX to match TPC tracks to EMCal clusters, a vital component of sPHENIX’s heavy-flavor program. This talk will discuss the details of this analysis, as well as planned studies which will build upon this work, such as the reconstruction of the J/ψ in sPHENIX pp data.