The BaBar Silicon Vertex Tracker: Performance, running experience and radiation damage studies

The Silicon Vertex Tracker (SVT) of the BABAR experiment at the PEP-II asymmetric B factory is a five layers double sided, AC coupled silicon microstrip detector. It represents a crucial element to measure with precision the decay position of B mesons, satisfying the severe constraints imposed by the accelerator design, in terms of geometry of the interaction region and conditions of operation. In the following paper the SVT performances are described. Radiation issues are discussed and the results of different tests aimed to study the SVT degeneration in performance due to the radiation damage are presented. The alignment procedure is described and a few BaBar physics results are presented as examples of the SVT capabilities to reconstruct decay vertices with good resolution and efficiency.