Heavy Flavor Tracker (HFT): The new silicon vertex detector for the STAR experiment at RHIC

The HFT is the vertex–detector upgrade for the STAR experiment at RHIC. It is replacing the decommissioned silicon drift detector (SVT) with active pixel technology close to the beam pipe in order to increase by about an order of magnitude the track-pointing (DCA) resolution. This will allow direct and full topological reconstruction of charmed meson decays (e.g. D0) and a better determination of the B–meson spectra. Key measurements include D0 elliptic flow (v2) determination, especially in the lower transverse momenta (pT) region, and identified heavy quark suppression studies at high pT via the nuclear modification factor (RCP and RAA).