BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York
Funding: Work supported by Brookhaven Science Associates, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC02-98CH10886 with the U.S. Department of Energy.
After having provided collisions of polarized protons at a beam energy of 100 GeV since 2001, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider~(RHIC) at BNL reached its design energy of polarized proton collision at 250 GeV. With the help of the two full Siberian snakes in each ring as well as careful orbit correction and working point control, polarization was preserved during acceleration from injection to 250~GeV. During the course of the Physics data taking, the spin rotators on either side of the experiments of STAR and PHENIX were set up to provide collisions with longitudinal polarization at both experiments. Various techniques to increase luminosity like further beta star squeeze and RF system upgrades as well as gymnastics to shorten the bunch length at store were also explored during the run. This paper reports the performance of the run as well as the plan for future performance improvement in RHIC.
BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York
Funding: Work supported by Brookhaven Science Associates, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC02-98CH10886 with the U.S. Department of Energy.
Medium Energy eRHIC (MeRHIC), the first stage design of eRHIC, includes a multi-pass ERL that provides 4GeV high quality electron beam to collide with the ion beam of RHIC. It delivers a minimum luminosity of 1032 cm-2s-1. Beam-beam effects present one of major factors limiting the luminosity of colliders. In this paper, both beam-beam effects on the electron beam and the proton beam in MeRHIC are investigated. The beam-beam interaction can induce a head-tail type instability of the proton beam referred to as the kink instability. Thus, beam stability conditions should be established to avoid proton beam loss. Also, the electron beam transverse disruption by collisions has to be evaluated to ensure that the beam quality is good enough for the energy recovery pass. The relation of proton beam stability, electron disruption and consequential luminosity are carried out after thorough discussion.
BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York
Funding: Work supported by Brookhaven Science Associates, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC02-98CH10886 with the U.S. Department of Energy.
Beam-beam effects present one of major factors limiting the luminosity of colliders. In the linac-ring option of the eRHIC design, an electron beam accelerated in a superconducting energy recovery linac collides with a proton beam circulating in the RHIC ring. Some specific features of beam-beam interactions should be carefully evaluated for the linac-ring configuration. One of the most important effects on ion beam stability originates from a strongly focused electron beam because of the beam-beam force. This electron pinch effect makes the beam-beam parameter of the ion beam several times larger than the design value, and leads to the fast emittance growth of the ion beam. The electron pinch effect can be controlled by adjustments of electron lattice and the incident emittance. We present results of simulations optimizing ion beam quality in the presence of this pinch effect.
BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York
Funding: Work performed under US DOE contract DE-AC02-98CH1-886
During the course of last RHIC runs the beta-functions at the collision points (beta*) have been reduced gradually to 0.7m. In order to maximize the collision luminosity and ensure the agreement of the actual machine optics with the design one, more precise measurements and control of beta* value and beta* waist location became necessary. The paper presents the results of the implementation of the technique applied in last two RHIC runs. The technique is based on well-known relation between the tune shift and the beta function and involves precise betatron tune measurements using BBQ system as well as specially developed knobs for beta* and beta* waist location control.
BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York
MIT, Middleton, Massachusetts
Funding: Work performed under US DOE contract DE-AC02-98CH1-886
Design of a medium energy electron-ion collider (MEeIC) is under development at Collider-Accelerator Department, BNL. The design envisions a construction of 4 GeV electron accelerator in a local area inside the RHIC tunnel. The electrons will be produced by a polarized electron source and accelerated in the energy recovery linac. Collisions of the electron beam with 100 GeV/u heavy ions or with 250 GeV polarized protons will be arranged in the existing IP2 interaction region of RHIC. The luminosity of electron-proton collisions at 1032 cm-2 s-1 level will be achieved with 40 mA CW electron current with presently available parameters of the proton beam. Efficient cooling of proton beam at the collision energy may bring the luminosity to 1033 cm-2 s-1 level. The important feature of the MEeIC is that it would serve as first stage of eRHIC, a future electron-ion collider at BNL with both higher luminosity and energy reach. The majority of the MEeIC accelerator components will be used for eRHIC.
BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York
CERN, Geneva
Funding: Work supported by Brookhaven Science Associates, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC02-98CH10886 with the U.S. Department of Energy.
In the article we review the nonlinear beam dynamics from nonlinear magnetic fields in the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. The nonlinear magnetic fields include the magnetic field errors in the interaction regions, chromatic sextupoles, and sextupole component from arc dipoles. Their effects on the beam dynamics and long-term dynamic apertures are evaluated. The online measurement and correction methods for the IR nonlinear errors, nonlinear chromaticity, and horizontal third order resonance are reviewed. The overall strategy for the nonlinear effect correction in the RHIC is discussed.
BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York
The reduction of beta* beyond the 1m design value at RHIC has been consistently achieved over the last 6 years of RHIC operations, resulting in an increase of luminosity for different running modes and species. During the recent 2007-08 deuteron-gold run the reduction to 0.70 from the design 1 m achieved a 30% increase in delivered luminosity. The key ingredients in allowing the reduction have been the capability of efficiently developing ramps with tune and coupling feedback, orbit corrections on the ramp, and collimation at injection and on the ramp, to minimize beam losses in the final focus triplets, the main aperture limitation for the collision optics. We will describe the operational strategy used to reduce the b*, at first squeezing the beam at store, to test feasibility, followed by the operationally preferred option of squeezing the beam during acceleration, and the resulting luminosity increase obtained in the Cu-Cu run in 2005, Au-Au in 2007 and the deuteron-Au run in 2007-08. We will also include beta squeeze plans and results for the upcoming 2009 run with polarized protons at 250 GeV.