BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York
After the last successful RHIC Au-Au run in 2004 (Run-4), RHIC experiments now require significantly enhanced luminosity to study very rare events in heavy ion collisions. RHIC has demonstrated its capability to operate routinely above its design average luminosity per store of 2x1026 cm-2 s-1. In Run-4 we already achieved 2.5 times the design luminosity in RHIC. This luminosity was achieved with only 40% of bunches filled, and with β* = 1 m. However, the goal is to reach 4 times the design luminosity, 8x1026 cm-2 s-1, by reducing the beta* value and increasing the number of bunches to the accelerator maximum of 111. In addition, the average time in store should be increased by a factor of 1.1 to about 60% of calendar time. We present an overview of the changes that increased the instantaneous luminosity and luminosity lifetime, raised the reliability, and improved the operational efficiency of RHIC Au-Au operations during Run-7.
BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York
ITEP, Moscow
The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider~(RHIC) as the first high energy polarized proton collider was designed to provide polarized proton collisions at a maximum beam energy of 250GeV. It has been providing collisions at a beam energy of 100GeV since 2001. Equipped with two full Siberian snakes in each ring, polarization is preserved during the acceleration from injection to 100GeV with careful control of the betatron tunes and the vertical orbit distortions. However, the intrinsic spin resonances beyond 100GeV are about a factor of two stronger than those below 100GeV making it important to examine the impact of these strong intrinsic spin resonances on polarization survival and the tolerance for vertical orbit distortions. Polarized protons were accelerated to the record energy of 250GeV in RHIC with a polarization of 45\% measured at top energy in 2006. The polarization measurement as a function of beam energy also shows some polarization loss around 136GeV, the first strong intrinsic resonance above 100GeV. This paper presents the results and discusses the sensitivity of the polarization survival to orbit distortions.
BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York
Dual partial snake scheme has provided polarized proton beams with 1.5*1011 intensity and 65% polarization for RHIC spin program. To overcome the residual polarization loss due to horizontal resonances in the AGS, a new string of quadrupoles have been added. The horizontal tune can now be set in the spin tune gap generated by the two partial snakes, such that horizontal resonances are avoided. This paper presents the accelerator setup and preliminary results.
BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York
Full spin flip in the presence of full Siberian snake has been achieved by using an rf dipole or solenoid as spin flipper at IUCF and COSY. This technique requires one to change the snake configuration to move the spin tune away from half integer. However, this is not practical for an operational high energy polarized proton collider like RHIC where beam lifetime is sensitive to small betatron tune change. An new technique of achieving full spin flip with the spin tune staying at half integer is proposed. This paper presents the design of RHIC spin flipper along with simulation results.
BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York
Snake depolarizing resonances due to the imperfect cancellation of the accumulated perturbations on the spin precession between snakes were observed at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider~(RHIC). During the RHIC 2005 and 2006 polarized proton runs, we mapped out the spectrum of odd order snake resonance at Qy=7/10. Here, Qy is the beam vertical betatron tune. We also studied the beam polarization after crossing the 7/10th resonance as a function of resonance crossing rate. This paper reports the measured resonance spectrum as well as the results of resonance crossing.
The work was performed under the US Department of Energy Contract No. DE-AC02-98CH1-886, and with support of RIKEN(Japan) and RenaissanceTechnologies C orp.(USA)
BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York
To achieve the RHIC polarized proton enhanced luminosity goal of 150*1030 cm-2 sec-1 on average in stores at 250 GeV, the luminosity needs to be increased by a factor of 3 compared to what was achieved in 2006. Since the number of bunches is already at its maximum of 111, limited by the injection kickers and the experiments' time resolution, the luminosity can only be increased by either increasing the bunch intensity and/or reducing the beam emittance. This leads to a larger beam-beam tuneshift parameter. Operation during 2006 has shown that the beam-beam interaction is already dominating the luminosity lifetime. To overcome this limitation, a near-integer working point is under study. We will present recent results of these studies.
BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York
There is significant interest in RHIC heavy ion collisions at c.m. energies of 5-50 GeV/u, motivated by a search for the QCD phase transition critical point. The low end of this energy range is well below the nominal RHIC injection c.m. energy of 19.6 GeV/u. There are several challenges that face RHIC operations in this regime, including longitudinal acceptance, magnet field quality, lattice control, and luminosity monitoring. We report on the status of work to address these challenges and include results from beam tests of low-energy RHIC operations with protons and gold.
IUCF, Bloomington, Indiana
BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York
Two partial helical dipole snakes were found to be able to overcome all imperfection and intrinsic spin resonances provided that the vertical betatron tunes were maintained in the spin tune gap near the integer 9. Recent vertical betatron tune scan showed that the two weak resonances at the beginning of the acceleration cycle may be the cause of polarization loss. This result has been confirmed by the vertical polarization profile measurement, and spin tracking simulations. Possible cure of the remaining beam polarization is discussed.
BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York
The AGS synchrotron employs two partial helical snakes* to preserve the polarization of the proton beam during acceleration in the AGS. The effect of the helical snakes on the beam optics is significant at injection energy, with the effect greatly diminishing early in the acceleration cycle. In order to compensate for the effect of the snakes on the beam optics, we have introduced eight compensation quadrupoles in straight sections of the AGS at the proximity of the partial snakes. At injection the strength of these eight quads is set at a high value but ramped down to zero when the effect of the snakes diminishes. Four of the compensation quadrupoles had to be placed in very short straight sections therefore had to be 'thin' with a length of ~30 cm. The 'thin' quadrupoles were laminated and designed to minimize the strength of the dodecoupole harmonic. The thickness of the lamination was also calculated** to keep the ohmic losses generated by the eddy currents in the laminations below an acceptable limit. Comparison of the measured and calculated harmonics will be presented and the ohmic losses due to the eddy currents, as a function of time during rumping will be discussed.
* H. Huang, et al., Proc. EPAC06, (2006), p. 273.** OPERA computer code. Vector Fields Inc.
BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York
To further improve the polarized proton (pp) run collision luminosity in the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, correction of the horizontal two-third resonance is desirable to increase the available tune space. The third resonance driving term (RTD) is measured with the turn-by-turn (TBT) beam position monitor (BPM) data with AC dipole excitation. A first order RTD response matrix based on the optics model is used to on-line compensate the third resonance driving term h30000 while keeping other first order RTDs and first order chromaticities unchanged. The results of beam experiment and simulation correction are presented and discussed.
BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York
To further improve the the polarized proton (pp) luminosity in the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, the beta functions at the two interaction points (IPs) will be reduced from 1.0 m to 0.9m in 2007. In addition, it is planned to increase the bunch intensity from 1.5*1011 to 2.0*1011. To accommodate these changes, the nonlinear chromaticities and the third resonance driving term should be corrected. In 2007, the number of the arc sextupole power supplies will be doubled from 12 to 24, which allows nonlinear chromaticity correction. With the updated field errors in the interaction regions (IRs), detailed dynamic aperture studies are carried out to optimize the nonlinear correction schemes, and increase the available tune space in collision.