Commissioning the Polarized Beam in the AGS

Abstract

After the successful operation of a high energy polarized proton beam at the Argonne Laboratory Zero Gradient Synchrotron (ZGS) was terminated, plans were made to commission such a beam at the Brookhaven National Laboratory Alternating Gradient Synchrotron (AGS). On February 23, 1984, 2 ..mu..A of polarized H/sup -/ was accelerated through the Linac to 200 MeV with a polarization of about 65%. 1 ..mu..A was injected into the AGS and acceleration attempts began. Several relatively short runs were then made during the next three months. Dedicated commissioning began in early June, and on June 26 the AGS polarized beam reached 13.8 GeV/c to exceed the previous ZGS peak momentum of 12.75 GeV/c. Commissioning continued to the point where 10/sup 10/ polarized protons were accelerated to 16.5 GeV/c with 40% polarization. Then, two experiments had a short polarized proton run. We plan to continue commissioning efforts in the fall of this year to reach higher energy, higher intensity, and higher polarization levels. We present a brief description of the facility and of the methods used for preserving the polarization of the accelerating beam.