BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York, USA
RHIC operation as the polarized proton collider presents unique challenges since both luminosity and spin polarization are important. With longitudinally polarized beams at the experiments, the figure of merit is LP4. A lot of upgrades and modifications have been made since last polarized proton operation. A 9 MHz rf system has been installed to improve longitudinal match at injection and to increase luminosity. The beam dumps were upgraded to allow for increased bunch intensities. A vertical survey of RHIC was performed before the run to get better magnet alignment. The orbit control has also been improved this year. Additional efforts were put in to improve source polarization and AGS polarization transfer efficiency. To preserve polarization on the ramp, a new working point was chosen such that the vertical tune is near a third order resonance. The overview of the changes and the operation results are presented in this paper.
BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York, USA
Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) beams are subject to Intra-Beam Scattering (IBS) that causes an emittance growth in all three-phase space planes. The only way to increase integrated luminosity is to counteract IBS with cooling during RHIC stores. A stochastic cooling system [1] for this purpose has been developed, it includes moveable pick-ups and kickers in the collider that require precise motion control mechanics, drives and controllers. Since these moving parts can limit the beam path aperture, accuracy and reliability is important. Servo, stepper, and DC motors are used to provide actuation solutions for position control. The choice of motion stage, drive motor type, and controls are based on needs defined by the variety of mechanical specifications, the unique performance requirements, and the special needs required for remote operations in an accelerator environment. In this report we will describe the remote motion control related beam line hardware, position transducers, rack electronics, and software developed for the RHIC stochastic cooling pick-ups and kickers.
BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York, USA
As part of the search for a phase transition or critical point on the QCD phase diagram, an energy scan including 5 different energy settings was performed during the 2010 RHIC heavy ion run. While the top beam energy for heavy ions is at 100 GeV/n and the lowest achieved energy setpoint was significantly below RHICs injection energy of approximately 10 GeV/n, we also provided beams for data taking in a medium energy range above injection energy and below top beam energy. This paper reviews RHIC experience and challenges for RHIC medium energy operations that produced full experimental data sets at beam energies of 31.2 GeV/n and 19.5 GeV/n.