Dear STAR Collaborators,

The email concerns an upcoming planning exercise related to
STAR's inner tracking detectors. The review, which will take place
just before the Collaboration meeting (July 7-8) at BNL, will place
particular emphasis on understanding how a plan which optimizes our
physics program in the next few years (including planned upgrades
of STAR's capability) informs the question of future utilization of
the SVT and when it should be taken out of the STAR set-up.

The draft charge for the SVT Review Committee is attached below.
The agenda and the membership of the review panel will be announced
in the coming week.

As a final comment, I would like to thank, in advance, Jerome Lauret,
and Spiros Margetis for organizing the necessary effort for this review, as
well as all the members of the STAR software and SVT analysis teams who
have been working steadily behind the scenes for close to a year now to
produce the necessary understanding to inform this important
discussion.



                               Sincerely,

                               Tim Hallman 

Charge to the SVT Review Panel:

The charge to the committee is to comment on how a plan
which optimizes the scientific output of the STAR Collaboration
in the next 3-5 years influences the issue of whether and
when the STAR Silicon Vertex Tracker should be removed.

The core physics goals of the STAR Collaboration in the
next 3-5 years include:

1) measurements which confirm the existence of and
   characterize the quark-gluon plasma

2) measurements which illuminate the spin dependence
   of the parton distribution functions within the
   proton; measurements which delineate the contribution
   of orbital motion to the proton spin

3) measurements which illuminate the initial state wave
   function of entrance channel relativistic heavy ion
   collisions; measurements which explore the QCD processes
   which underly diffractive scattering in high energy
   hadron-hadron interactions.


To achieve these goals, a strategy which optimizes the science
within the constraints of running time, machine performance,
detector configuration and performance, and manpower/resources
(hardware and software) is essential. This strategy should
take into account the timeliness and urgency of planned measurements.

Taking into account the physics goals of STAR as well as the expected
operating envelopes for STAR and RHIC, the committee is charged with
recommending a strategy for the future utilization and eventual removal
of the STAR Silicon Vertex Tracker. In developing its recommendation,
the review panel should take into account known constraints, including,
but not limited to, factors that relate specifically to possible changes
in detector configuration and continued operation of the STAR Silicon
Vertex Tracker and Silicon Strip Detector.

Factors specific to the SVT and SSD which impact this consideration are:

1)  the ultimate precision/performance the SVT can be expect to
    achieve a) standalone and b) in conjunction with the SSD

2)  what compelling physics may be afforded by an optimized
    SVT+SSD tracking system? What beams are required for these
    measurements and how soon can they be completed?

3)  what compelling physic measurements are compromised and/or
    delayed if the SVT or SVT + SSD support structure remain in place
    (e.g. direct photons, semi-leptonic decays of open charm, charmonium).
    What is the impact on the STAR scientific program and what
    if anything can be done to moderate it (e.g. Can spin physics
    compromised by the SVT at 200 GeV in the near term be
    accomplished with the SVT in place at 500 GeV?)

4)  what level of software/hardware maintainability for the SVT and
    SSD is required to achieve No. 2. Is this realistic?

5)  What impact does experience with the SVT + SSD microvertexing
    effort have on the future STAR tracking upgrades? What is the
    interface between the SVT and the future tracking upgrade
    detectors and what conflicts with the needs of the tracking upgrade
    detectors does it pose?


To inform the panel, in addition to SVT/SSD specific presentations
the review will contain reports on:

a) specific measurements key to STAR's science goals; their feasibility,
   timing, and factors which may compromise them or their timeliness

b) Issues related to STAR detector hardware/maintenance/operations

c) Issues related to STAR software and computing