M-C  study of BSMD response to high energy electrons

Attachment 1:

Fig 1 & 2  reminds actual (pp data based) calibration for 2 eta location of 0.1 and 0.8, presented earlier.

Table 1 shows  M-C simulation of average cluster energy (deposit in BSMD plane), its spread, and  width as function of electron ET, separately for eta- & phi-planes of BSMD.
As expected, BSMD sampling fraction (SF, red column)  is not constant but drops with energy of electron.
The BSMD SF(ET) deviates from constant by less then 20% - it is a small effect.

Fig 3,4,5 show expected BSMD response to M-C electrons with ET of 6,20, and 40 GeV. Only for the lowest energy  the majority of EM showers fit in to the dynamic range of BSMD, which ends for energy deposit of about 60 keV per plane.
I was trying to be generous and draw the red line at DE~90 keV .
The rms of BSMD cluster is about 0.5 strips, so majority of energy is measured by just 2 strips (amplifiers). Such narrow cluster lowers  saturation threshold.

Fig 6, shows BSMD cluster energy for PYTHIA W-events.
Fig 7 shows similar response to PYTHIA QCD events.

Compare area marked with red oval - there is strong correlation between BSMD energy and electron energy and would be not wise to forgo it in the e/h algo.  

Conclusion:

The attached slides show 2008 HV setting of BSMD would lead to full saturation of BSMD response for electrons from W decay with ET as low as 20 GeV , i.e. would reduce BSDM dynamic range to 1 bit.0

For the reference:

* absolute BSMD calibration based on 2008 pp data.
http://drupal.star.bnl.gov/STAR/subsys/bemc/calibrations/bsmd/2008-bsmd-calibration/19-isolated-gamma-algo-description-set-2-0

* current BSMD HV are set very high , leading to saturation of BSMD at gamma energy of 7-10 GeV, depending on eta and plane. (Lets ignore difference between E & ET for this discussion, for now).
http://drupal.star.bnl.gov/STAR/subsys/bemc/calibrations/bsmd/2008-bsmd-calibration/20-bsmd-saturation

*  STAR priorities for 2009 pp run presented at Apex: http://www.c-ad.bnl.gov/APEX/APEXWorkshop2008/talks/Dunlop_Star_Apex_2008.pdf

* Attachment 2,3 show BSMD-E, -P response for electrons with  ET: 4,6,8,10,20,30,40,50 GeV and to Pythia W, QCD events (in this order)