STAR Forward Pion Detector Fabrication

This Exploratory Grant for Exploratory Research will provide support

for the fabrication of components of a forward pion detector (FPD)

to be installed in the STAR detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion

Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory in anticipation of

the 2003 experimental run. Measurement of neutral pion production

by transversely polarized proton beams can provide to our knowledge

of the gluon distribution in the proton. Preliminary runs with

simple detectors have produced results which motivate the present

design, and narrow equipment installation windows at RHIC have

contributed a time urgency to this project.