• A. Marusic, M.G. Minty, S. Tepikian
  BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York

Chromaticity feedback during the ramp to high beam energies has been demonstrated in the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). In this report we review the feedback design and measurement technique. Commissioning experiences including interaction with existing tune and coupling feedback are presented together with supporting experimental data.

• C. Montag, M. Blaskiewicz, J.M. Brennan, S. Tepikian
  BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York

During the acceleration process, heavy ion beams in RHIC cross the transition energy. When RHIC was colliding deuterons and gold ions during Run-8, lattices with different integer tunes were used for the two rings. This resulted in the two rings crossing transition at different times, which proved beneficial for the "Yellow" ring, the RF system of which is slaved to the "Blue" ring. For the symmetric gold-gold run in FY2010, lattices with different transition energies but equal tunes were implemented. We report the optics design concept as well as operational experience with this configuration.

• K.A. Brown, L. Ahrens, M. Bai, J. Beebe-Wang, M. Blaskiewicz, J.M. Brennan, D. Bruno, C. Carlson, R. Connolly, T. D'Ottavio, R. De Maria, K.A. Drees, W. Fischer, W. Fu, C.J. Gardner, D.M. Gassner, J.W. Glenn, Y. Hao, M. Harvey, T. Hayes, L.T. Hoff, H. Huang, J.S. Laster, R.C. Lee, V. Litvinenko, Y. Luo, W.W. MacKay, M. Mapes, G.J. Marr, A. Marusic, K. Mernick, R.J. Michnoff, M.G. Minty, C. Montag, J. Morris, S. Nemesure, B. Oerter, F.C. Pilat, V. Ptitsyn, G. Robert-Demolaize, T. Roser, T. Russo, P. Sampson, J. Sandberg, T. Satogata, V. Schoefer, C. Schultheiss, F. Severino, K. Smith, D. Steski, S. Tepikian, C. Theisen, P. Thieberger, D. Trbojevic, N. Tsoupas, J.E. Tuozzolo, G. Wang, M. Wilinski, A. Zaltsman, K. Zeno, S.Y. Zhang
  BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York

Since the last successful RHIC Au+Au run in 2007 (Run7), the RHIC experiments have made numerous detector improvements and upgrades. In order to benefit from the enhanced detector capabilities and to increase the yield of rare events in the acquired heavy ion data a significant increase in luminosity is essential. In Run7 RHIC achieved an average store luminosity of <L>=12x10²⁶ cm^-2 s^-1 by operating with 103 bunches (out of 110 possible), and by squeezing to β*=0.8 m. Our goal for this year's run, Run10, was to achieve an average of <L>=27x10²⁶ cm^-2 s^-1. The measures taken were decreasing β* to 0.6 m, and reducing longitudinal and transverse emittances by means of bunched-beam stochastic cooling. In addition we introduced a lattice to suppress intra-beam scattering (IBS) in both RHIC rings, upgraded the RF system, and separated transition crossings in both rings while ramping. We present an overview of the changes and the results in terms of Run10 increased instantaneous luminosity, luminosity lifetime, and integrated luminosity.

• C. Montag, L. Ahrens, M. Bai, J. Beebe-Wang, M. Blaskiewicz, J.M. Brennan, K.A. Brown, D. Bruno, R. Connolly, T. D'Ottavio, K.A. Drees, A.V. Fedotov, W. Fischer, G. Ganetis, C.J. Gardner, J.W. Glenn, H. Hahn, M. Harvey, T. Hayes, H. Huang, P.F. Ingrassia, J.P. Jamilkowski, A. Kayran, J. Kewisch, R.C. Lee, D.I. Lowenstein, A.U. Luccio, Y. Luo, W.W. MacKay, Y. Makdisi, N. Malitsky, G.J. Marr, A. Marusic, M.P. Menga, R.J. Michnoff, M.G. Minty, J. Morris, B. Oerter, F.C. Pilat, P.H. Pile, E. Pozdeyev, V. Ptitsyn, G. Robert-Demolaize, T. Roser, T. Russo, T. Satogata, V. Schoefer, C. Schultheiss, F. Severino, M. Sivertz, K. Smith, S. Tepikian, P. Thieberger, D. Trbojevic, N. Tsoupas, J.E. Tuozzolo, A. Zaltsman, A. Zelenski, K. Zeno, S.Y. Zhang
  BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York

During the second half of Run-9, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) provided polarized proton collisions at two interaction points with both longitudinal and vertical spin direction. Despite an increase in the peak luminosity by up to 40%, the average store luminosity did not increase compared to previous runs. We discuss the luminosity limitations and polarization performance during Run-9.

• Y. Luo, W. Fischer, G. Robert-Demolaize, S. Tepikian, D. Trbojevic
  BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York

In this article, based on the contributions of the chromatic sextupole families to the half-integer resonance driving terms, we discuss how to sort the chromatic sextupoles in the arcs of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) to easily and effectively correct the second order chromaticities. We propose an online method with 4 knobs or 4 pairs of chromatic sextupole families to correct second order chromaticities. Numerical simulations support this method and shows that it improves the balance of correction strengths among the sextupole families and avoids reversal of sextupole polarities, as well as yielding larger dynamic apertures for the 2009 RHIC 100 GeV polarized proton run.