Nonlinear diagnostics using AC dipoles

There are three goals in the accurate nonlinear diagnosis of a storage ring. First, the beam must be moved to amplitudes many times the natural beam size. Second, strong and long lasting signals must be generated. Third, the measurement technique should be non-destructive, Conventionally, a single turn kick moves the beam to large amplitudes, and turn-by-turn data are recorded from multiple beam position monitors (BPMs). Unfortunately, tune spread across the beam causes the center of charge beam signal to “decohere” on a time scale often less than 100 turns. Filamentation also permanently destroys the beam emittance (in a hadron ring). Thus, the “strong single turn kick” technique successfully achieves only one out of the three goals. AC dipole techniques can achieve all three. Adiabatically excited AC dipoles slowly move the beam out to large amplitudes. The coherent signals then recorded last arbitrarily long. The beam maintains its original emittance if the AC dipoles are also turned off adiabatically, ready for further use. The AGS already uses an RF dipole to accelerate polarized proton beams through depolarizing resonances with minimal polarization loss. Similar AC dipoles will be installed in the horizontal and vertical planes of both rings in RHIC. The RHIC AC dipoles will also be used as spin flippers, and to measure linear optical functions