A new system used for monitoring energetic Coulomb-scattered electrons as the main diagnostic for accurately aligning the electron and ion beams in the new Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) electron lenses is described in detail. The theory of electron scattering from relativistic ions is developed and applied to the design and implementation of the system used to achieve and maintain the alignment. Commissioning with gold and 3 He beams is then described as well as the successful utilization of the new system during the 2015 RHIC polarized proton run. Systematic errors of the new method are then estimated. Finally, some possible future applications of Coulomb-scattered electrons for beam diagnostics are briefly discussed.
Two electron lenses (e-lenses) have been in operation during the 2015 RHIC physics run as part of a head-on beam-beam compensation scheme. While the RHIC lattice was chosen to reduce the beam-beaminduced resonance-driving terms, the electron lenses reduced the beam-beam-induced tune spread. This has been demonstrated for the first time. The beam-beam compensation scheme allows for higher beam-beam parameters and therefore higher intensities and luminosity. In this paper, we detail the design considerations and verification of the electron beam parameters of the RHIC e-lenses. Longitudinal and transverse alignments with ion beams and the transverse beam transfer function measurement with head-on electronproton beam are presented.
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