Internal alignement of the BABAR silicon vertex tracking detector

The BABAR Silicon Vertex Tracker (SVT ) is a five-layer double-sided silicon detector designed to provide precise measurements of the position and direction of primary tracks, and to fully reconstruct low-momentum tracks produced in e+e¡ collisions at the PEP-II asymmetric collider at Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. This paper describes the design, implementation, performance and validation of the local alignment procedure used to determine the relative positions and orientations of the 340 Silicon Vertex Trackerwafers. This procedure uses a tuned mix of lab-bench measurements and complementary in-situ experimental data to control systematic distortions. Wafer positions and orientations are determined by minimizing a Â2 computed using these data for each wafer individually, iterating to account for between-wafer correlations. A correction for aplanar distortions of the silicon wafers is measured and applied. The net effect of residual mis-alignments on relevant physical variables evaluated in special control samples is presented.