Determining the Energy Sampling Fraction of the sPHENIX Hadronic Calorimeter

The sPHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Lab is designed to explore the properties of the quark-gluon plasma through precision measurements of jets, heavy flavor, and quarkonia. The sPHENIX detector features a sophisticated calorimetry system, including an electromagnetic calorimeter (EMCal) and a hadronic calorimeter (HCal), which are crucial for energy measurements and particle identification. The HCal consists of two parts along the particle trajectory: the inner HCal (IHCal) and the outer HCal (OHCal). The OHCal is installed outside the solenoid magnet and is composed of alternating layers of tapered steel plates and scintillator tiles. The IHCal is located inside the solenoid magnet with aluminum plates as absorbers. The energy sampling fraction (SF), defined as the ratio of energy deposited in the active medium to the total energy, is a critical parameter for energy reconstruction. This talk highlights the procedure and main results of the HCal SF based on detailed GEANT4 simulations.