First operational experience from the LHCb Silicon Tracker

The LHCb Silicon Tracker is a silicon micro-strip detector covering a sensitive area of 12 m(2) with a total of 272k readout channels. The installation of the detector is complete and commissioning is making excellent progress. The detector has recorded first beam-induced events during LHC synchronization tests in August 2008 and in June 2009. These events have allowed the performance to be studied, and adjustments to the operational parameters to be made. In this contribution, we will draw first lessons from the in situ commissioning of the Silicon Tracker, and present results from the reconstruction of data collected during the LHC synchronization tests. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.