Acceleration of Polarized Protons at RHIC

Abstract

Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) ended its second year of operation in January 2002 with five weeks of polarized proton collisions. Polarized protons were successfully injected in both RHIC rings and maintained polarization during acceleration up to 100 GeV per ring using two Siberian snakes in each ring. This is the first time that polarized protons have been accelerated to 100 GeV. The machine performance and accomplishments during the polarized proton run will be reviewed. The plans for the next polarized proton run will be outlined.