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.
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.
BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York
CEA, Gif-sur-Yvette
Commissioning of spin flipper in the RHIC (Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider) Blue ring during the 2009 RHIC polarized proton run showed significant global vertical coherent betatron oscillations induced by a two AC dipole plus four DC dipole configuration. These global orbital coherent oscillations affected collision rates and Yellow beam polarization when beams were in collision. The measured depolarizing strength of of the two AC dipoles at a phase difference of 180 degrees at injection with a different spin tune also confirmed that a single isolated spin resonance can not be induced in the presence of this global vertical coherent betatron oscillation. Hence, a new design was proposed to eliminate the coherent orbital oscillation outside the spin flipper with three additional AC dipoles. This paper presents the new design and supporting numerical simulations. In the RHIC 2010 Au run, only one AC dipole was inserted between the two original AC dipoles; and the measured closure of this AC dipole bump is also presented.
This work is under the auspices of the US Department of Energy
BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York
High energy polarized proton beams are desired for exploring the proton spin structure as well as other spin dependent measurements. However, depolarizing mechanisms due to the interaction between the spin motion and the magnetic fields challenges accelerating polarized protons to high energy in circular accelerators. Several decades of efforts in developing techniques to preserve polarization to high energy have finally led to the success of the polarized proton program at the Brookhaven Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). Designed to provide polarized proton collisions up to 250GeV, RHIC is equipped with two Siberian snakes to avoid both intrinsic and imperfection depolarizing resonances. Currently, polarization has been preserved up to 100 GeV at RHIC with precise control of orbit and betatron tunes. The polarized protons were first brought into collisions at 250GeV in RHIC in 2009, and depolarizations were observed between 100 GeV to 250 GeV. This presentation reports the progress of RHIC polarized proton program. Strategies of how to preserve the polarization through the RHIC injectors are also presented.
BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York
Polarized proton beams are accelerated in RHIC to 250 GeV energy with the help of Siberian Snakes. The pair of Siberian Snakes in each RHIC ring holds the design spin tune at 1/2 to avoid polarization loss during acceleration. However, in the presence of closed orbit errors, the actual spin tune can be shifted from the exact 1/2 value. It leads to corresponding shift of locations of higher-order ("Snake") resonances and limits available betatron tune space. The largest closed orbit effect on the spin tune comes from the horizontal orbit angle between the two snakes. During RHIC Run in 2009 dedicated measurements with polarized proton beams were taken to verify the dependence of the spin tune on the local orbits at the Snakes. The experimental results are presented along with the comparison with analytical predictions.
BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York
We report recent experimental results on linear optics measurements and corrections using ac dipole. In RHIC 2009 run, the concept of the SVD correction algorithm is tested at injection energy for both identifying the artificial gradient errors and correcting it using the trim quadrupoles. The measured phase beatings were reduced by 30% and 40% respectively for two dedicated experiments. In RHIC 2010 run, ac dipole is used to measure beta* and chromatic beta function. For the 0.65m beta* lattice, we observed a factor of 3 discrepancy between model and measured chromatic function in the yellow ring.