A group of physicists from the UCSB high
energy physics group are working with physicsists from Italian and other
U.S. institutes on the construction of the Silicon Vertex Tracker (SVT)
for the BABAR experiment. The picture below shows one half of the
BABAR SVT, which consists of five layers of silicon detectors. The
inner three layers, assembled at UCSB, are configured as a conventional
vertex detector; the outer two layers, delivered by Pisa, have a distinctive
arch shape. The completed SVT is here being transferred to a model
of the interaction region built at LBL. The bottom picture shows
the full SVT mounted on the IR model, cabled up and ready for a complete
system and cosmic ray test. After those tests the SVT will be shipped
to SLAC for assembly on the PEP-II beam pipe in preparation for installation
of BABAR.