The heavy ion injection scheme for RHIC

The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory has a multicomponent injection system. The RHIC requires very heavy ions such as ¹⁷⁹₇₉Au to be injected fully stripped of atomic electrons, at a kinetic energy of approximately 10 GeV/nucleon. However, the heavy ions are produced initially at a negative ion source and accelerated first in a 15-MV tandem. These partially stripped ions have a kinetic energy of approximately 1 MeV/nucleon on leaving the tandem. In order to achieve the injection requirements for the RHIC, the partially stripped ions are accelerated in the booster (currently under construction) and pass through a stripping foil on their way to the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron (AGS), where they are further accelerated before injection into the RHIC. Recent theoretical calculations have shown quite convincingly that very heavy ions with two electrons in the filled K-shell can be accelerated with negligible loss in the AGS