BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York, USA
Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, USA
RHIC operations with heavy ion beams at energies below 10 GeV/nucleon are motivated by a search for the QCD Critical Point. An electron cooler is proposed as a means to increase RHIC luminosity for collider operations at these low energies. The electron cooling system should be able to deliver an electron beam of adequate quality over a wide range of electron beam energies (0.9-5 MeV). It also should provide optimum 3-D cooling for both hadron beams in the collider. A method based on bunched electron beam, which is also a natural approach for high-energy electron cooling, is being developed. In this paper, we describe the requirements for this system, its design aspects, as well as the associated challenges.
BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York, USA
To search for the critical point in the QCD phase diagram, Au-Au collisions at beam energies between 2.5 and 15 GeV are required. While RHIC has successfully operated at 3.85 and 5.75 GeV, the performance achieved at 2.5 GeV is not sufficient for a meaningful physics program. We report on dedicated beam experiments performed to understand and improve this situation.