A. Drees

First Measurement of Proton-Proton Elastic Scattering at RHIC

Abstract The first result of the pp2pp experiment at RHIC on elastic scattering of polarized protons at s =200 GeV is reported here. The exponential slope parameter b of the diffractive peak of the elastic cross section in the t range 0.010⩽|t|⩽0.019 (GeV/c)2 was measured to be b=16.3±1.6(stat.)±0.9(syst.) (GeV/c)−2.

RHIC pressure rise and electron cloud

In RHIC high intensity operation, two types of pressure rise are currently of concern. The first type is at the beam injection, which seems to be caused by the electron multipacting, and the second is the one at the beam transition, where the electron cloud is not the dominant cause. The first type of pressure rise is limiting the beam intensity and the second type might affect the experiments background for very high total beam intensity. In this article, the pressure rises at RHIC are described, and preliminary study results are reported. Some of the unsettled issues and questions are raised, and possible counter measures are discussed.

Crystal Collimation at RHIC

Crystal Channeling occurs when an ion enters a crystal with a small angle with respect to the crystal planes, The electrostatic interaction between the incoming ion and the lattice causes the ion to follow the crystal planes. By mechanically bending a crystal, it is possible to use a crystal to deflect ions. One novel use of a bent crystal is to use it to channel beam halo particles into a collimator downstream. By deflecting the halo particles into a collimator with a crystal it may be possible to improve collimation efficiency as compared to a single collimator. A bent crystal is installed in the yellow ring of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). In this paper we discuss our experience with the crystal collimator, and compare our results to previous data, simulation, and theoretical prediction.

ARTUS: THE TUNE MEASUREMENT SYSTEM AT RHIC

The super-conducting Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) with two separate rings and six combined interaction regions will provide collisions between equal and unequal heavy ion species up to Au ions in typically 60 bunches. The betatron tunes of the two beams are among the most important parameters to be measured. The tunes have to be acquired at any moment during accelerator operation and in particular during the acceleration process. At RHIC the tune measurement device (ARTUS) consists of a fast horizontal and vertical kicker magnet and a dedicated beam position monitor in each ring. The system layout is described and first experiences from operation is reported.

Tune feedback at RHIC

Preliminary phase-locked loop betatron tune measurement results were obtained during RHIC 2000 with a resonant Beam Position Monitor. These results suggested the possibility of incorporating PLL tune measurement into a tune feedback system for RHIC 2001. Tune feedback is useful in a superconducting accelerator, where the machine cycle time is long and inefficient acceleration due to resonance crossing is not comfortably tolerated. This is particularly true with the higher beam intensities planned for RHIC 2001. We present descriptions of a PLL tune measurement system implemented in the DSP/FPGA environment of a RHIC BPM electronics module and the feedback system into which the measurement is incorporated to regulate tune. In addition, we present results from the commissioning of this system during RHIC 2001.

Commissioning of RHIC deuteron-gold collisions

Deuteron and gold beams have been accelerated to a collision energy of /spl radic/s = 200 GeV/u in the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), providing the first asymmetric-species collisions of this complex. Necessary changes for this mode of operation include new ramping software and asymmetric crossing angle geometries. This paper reviews machine performance, problems encountered and their solutions, and accomplishments during the 16 weeks of ramp-up and operations.

Status of the R&D towards electron cooling of RHIC

The physics interest in a luminosity upgrade of RHIC requires the development of a cooling-frontier facility. Detailed calculations were made of electron cooling of the stored RHIC beams. This has been followed by beam dynamics simulations to establish the feasibility of creating the necessary electron beam. The electron beam accelerator will be a superconducting Energy Recovery Linac (ERL). An intensive experimental R&D program engages the various elements of the accelerator, as described by 24 contributions to the 2007 PAC.

RHIC challenges for low energy operations

There is significant interest in RHIC heavy ion collisions at radics =5-50 GeV/u, motivated by a search for the QCD phase transition critical point. The lowest energies are well below the nominal RHIC gold injection radics = 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, including results from beam tests of low energy RHIC operations with protons and gold.

First measurement of A N at s = 200 GeV in polarized proton–proton elastic scattering at RHIC

We report on the first measurement of the single spin analyzing power (A_N) at sqrt(s)=200GeV, obtained by the pp2pp experiment using polarized proton beams at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). Data points were measured in the four momentum transfer t range 0.01 < |t| < 0.03 (GeV/c)^2. Our result, averaged over the whole t-interval is about one standard deviation above the calculation, which uses interference between electromagnetic spin-flip amplitude and hadronic non-flip amplitude, the source of A_N. The difference could be explained by an additional contribution of a hadronic spin-flip amplitude to A_N.

Electron detectors for vacuum pressure rise diagnostics at RHIC

In the RHIC 2001 run, an unexpected vacuum pressure rise versus bunch increasing currents was observed in both gold and proton operations. This pressure increase due to molecular desorption is suspected to be induced mainly by electron multipacting, but other causes may coexist, such as ion desorption due to halo scraping. In order to get a reliable diagnostic of the phenomenon electron detectors have been installed along the RHIC ring. In this report we describe results measured by the electron detectors with energy filters during the RHlC 2002/2003 run.