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
Vibrations of the cryogenic triplet magnets at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) are suspected to be causing the beam perturbations observed at frequencies around 10 Hz. Several solutions to counteract the effect have been considered in the past, including reinforcing the magnet base support assembly, a mechanical servo feedback system, and a local beam feedback system at each of the two experimental areas. However, implementation of the mechanical solutions would be expensive, and the local feedback system was insufficient since perturbation amplitudes outside the experimental areas were still problematic. A global 10 Hz orbit feedback system is currently under development at RHIC consisting of 36 beam position monitors (BPMs) and 12 small dedicated dipole corrector magnets in each of the two counter-rotating rings. A subset of the system consisting of 8 BPMs and 4 corrector magnets in each ring was installed and successfully tested during the RHIC 2010 run; and the complete system is being installed for the 2011 run. A description of the overall system architecture and results with beam will be discussed.
BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York, USA
A high performance FPGA based platform has been developed for the RHIC Low Level RF system upgrade, and is now replacing our aging VME based systems. This new platform employs a sophisticated embedded architecture to implement its core functionality. This architecture provides a control system interface, manages remote access to all configuration parameters and diagnostic data, supports communication between all system components, enables real time application specific processing, monitors system health, etc. This paper will describe the embedded architecture and its capabilities, with emphasis on its application at RHIC.
BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York, USA
IAP, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
The construction and initial commissioning phase of a new heavy ion preinjector was completed at Brookhaven in September, 2010, and the preinjector is now operational. This preinjector, using an EBIS source to produce high charge state heavy ions, provided helium and neon ion beams for use at the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory in the Fall of 2010, and gold and uranium beams are being commissioned during the 2011 run cycle for use in RHIC. The EBIS operates with an electron beam current of up to 10 A, to produce mA level currents in 10 to 40 μs beam pulses. The source is followed by an RFQ and IH linac to accelerate ions with q/m > 0.16 to an energy of 2 MeV/amu, for injection into the Booster synchrotron. The performance of the preinjector is presented, including initial operational experience for the NASA and RHIC programs.
BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York, USA
Fermilab, Batavia, USA
Electron cooling was proposed to increase the luminosity of RHIC operation for heavy ion beam energies below 10 GeV/nucleon. The electron cooling system needed should be able to deliver an electron beam of adequate quality in a wide range of electron beam energies (0.9-5 MeV). An option of using an electrostatic accelerator for cooling heavy ions in RHIC was studied in detail. In this paper, we describe the requirements and options to be considered in the design of such a cooler for RHIC, as well as the associated challenges. The expected luminosity improvement and limitations with such electron cooling system are also discussed.