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A dual-energy electron storage ring is a novel concept initially proposed to cool hadron beams at high energies. The design consists of two closed rings operating at significantly different energies: the low-energy ring and the high-energy ring. These two rings are connected by an energy recovery linac (ERL) that provides the necessary energy difference. The ERL features superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) cavities that first accelerate the beam from the low energy E_{L} to the high energy E_{H} and then decelerate the beam from E_{H} to E_{L} in the next pass. The different SRF cavities in the ERL section can be adjusted based on the applications. In this paper, we present a possible layout of a dual-energy electron storage ring. The preliminary optics of the ring is designed to optimize chromaticity correction, dynamic aperture, momentum aperture, beam lifetime, radiation damping, and intrabeam scattering effects. The primary focus of this paper is on the stability conditions and beam dynamics studies associated with this storage ring.

We consider the capability of flexible spin-transparent polarization control and manipulation in conventional synchrotrons at integer spin resonances by means of spin navigators. The latter are designed as a couple of small solenoids separated by a constant beam bend. We formulate the requirements to the navigator design considering the criteria for stability of the spin motion in the presence of synchrotron energy oscillations. We propose the design of a novel spin-flipping system free of resonant beam depolarization based on such a spin navigator. We discuss the possibilities of testing spin-flipping systems at an integer spin resonance with protons in the Nuclotron ring at JINR in Dubna, Russia, and with deuterons in the RHIC rings at BNL in Upton, New York. The results are relevant to the existing and future facilities where the spin transparency mode can be applied for polarization control.

Solenoid Siberian snakes have successfully maintained polarization in particle rings below 1 GeV, but never in multi-GeV rings, because the spin rotation by a solenoid is inversely proportional to the beam momentum. High energy rings, such as Brookhaven’s 255 GeV Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), use only odd multiples of pairs of transverse B-field Siberian snakes directly opposite each other. When it became impractical to use a pair of Siberian Snakes in Fermilab’s 120 GeV/c Main Injector, we searched for a new type of single Siberian snake that could overcome all depolarizing resonances in the 8.9–120 GeV/c range. We found that a snake made of one 4-twist helix and 2 dipoles could maintain the polarization. This snake design could solve the long-standing problem of significant polarization loss during acceleration of polarized protons from a few GeV to tens of GeV, such as in the AGS, before injecting them into multi-hundred GeV rings, such as RHIC.

We present a new symmetry-based concept for an achromatic low-beta collider interaction region design. A specially designed symmetric chromaticity compensation block (CCB) induces an angle spread in the passing beam such that it cancels the chromatic kick of the final focusing quadrupoles. Two such CCBs placed symmetrically around an interaction point allow simultaneous compensation of the 1st-order chromaticities and chromatic beam smear at the IP without inducing significant 2nd-order aberrations to the particle trajectory. We first develop an analytic description of this approach and explicitly formulate 2nd-order aberration compensation conditions at the interaction point. The concept is next applied to develop an interaction region design for the ion collider ring of an electron-ion collider. We numerically evaluate performance of the design in terms of momentum acceptance and dynamic aperture. The advantages of the new concept are illustrated by comparing it to the conventional distributed-sextupole chromaticity compensation scheme.

Recirculating linear accelerators (RLA’s) provide a compact and efficient way of accelerating particle beams to medium and high energies by reusing the same linac for multiple passes. In the conventional scheme, after each pass, the different energy beams coming out of the linac are separated and directed into appropriate arcs for recirculation, with each pass requiring a separate fixed-energy arc. In this paper we present a concept of an RLA return arc based on linear combined-function magnets, in which two and potentially more consecutive passes with very different energies are transported through the same string of magnets. By adjusting the dipole and quadrupole components of the constituting linear combined-function magnets, the arc is designed to be achromatic and to have zero initial and final reference orbit offsets for all transported beam energies. We demonstrate the concept by developing a design for a droplet-shaped return arc for a dogbone RLA capable of transporting two beam passes with momenta different by a factor of 2. We present the results of tracking simulations of the two passes and lay out the path to end-to-end design and simulation of a complete dogbone RLA.

Stored beams of polarized protons, electrons, or deuterons can be spin flipped by sweeping an rf dipole’s or solenoid’s frequency through an rf spin resonance. Fitting such data to the modified Froissart-Stora equation’s spin resonance strength E_{FS} gave very large deviations from the ^{*}E_{Bdl} obtained from each rf magnet’s ∫B_{rms}dl. We recently varied an rf dipole’s frequency sweep range Δf, and the momentum spread Δp/p and betatron tune ν_{y} of stored 1.85 GeV/c polarized deuterons. We found a sharp constructive interference when ν_{y} was near an intrinsic spin resonance. Moreover, over large Δf and Δp/p ranges, E_{FS} was about 7 times smaller than the predicted ^{*}E_{Bdl}.

We recently started testing Chao’s proposed new matrix formalism for describing the spin dynamics due to a single spin resonance. The Chao formalism is probably the first fundamental improvement of the Froissart-Stora equation in that it allows analytic calculations of the beam polarization’s behavior inside a resonance. We tested the Chao formalism using a 1.85 GeV/c polarized deuteron beam stored in COSY, by sweeping an rf dipole’s frequency through 200 Hz, while varying the distance from the sweep’s end frequency to an rf-induced spin resonance’s central frequency. Since the Froissart-Stora equation itself can make no prediction inside a resonance, we compared our experimental data with the predictions of the Chao formalism and those of an empirical two-fluid model based on the Froissart-Stora equation. The data strongly favor the Chao formalism.

We recently analyzed all available data on spin-flipping stored beams of polarized protons, electrons, and deuterons. Fitting the modified Froissart-Stora equation to the measured polarization data after crossing an rf-induced spin resonance, we found 10–20-fold deviations from the depolarizing resonance strength equations used for many years. The polarization was typically manipulated by linearly sweeping the frequency of an rf dipole or rf solenoid through an rf-induced spin resonance; spin-flip efficiencies of up to 99.9% were obtained. The Lorentz invariance of an rf dipole’s transverse ∫Bdl and the weak energy dependence of its spin resonance strength E together imply that even a small rf dipole should allow efficient spin flipping in 100 GeV or even TeV storage rings; thus, it is important to understand these large deviations. Therefore, we recently studied the resonance strength deviations experimentally by varying the size and vertical betatron tune of a 2.1 GeV/c polarized proton beam stored in COSY. We found no dependence of E on beam size, but we did find almost 100-fold enhancements when the rf spin resonance was near an intrinsic spin resonance.

We recently used a prototype rf dipole magnet to study the spin flipping of a 669 MeV horizontally polarized electron beam stored in the presence of a nearly full Siberian snake in the new MIT-Bates storage ring. We flipped the spin by ramping the rf dipole's frequency through an rf-induced depolarizing resonance. After optimizing the frequency ramp parameters, we used multiple spin flipping to measure a spin-flip efficiency of 94.5±2.5%. The spin-flip efficiency was apparently limited by the field strength in the air-core prototype rf dipole magnet. This unexpectedly high efficiency indicates that very efficient spin flipping of the ring's stored polarized electron beam should be possible using the much stronger ferrite spin flipper, which is now being built by the University of Michigan's Spin Physics Center.

We recently used an rf dipole magnet to study the spin flipping of a 120 MeV horizontally polarized proton beam stored in the presence of a nearly full Siberian snake in the Indiana University Cyclotron Facility Cooler Ring. We flipped the spin by ramping the rf dipole's frequency through an rf-induced depolarizing resonance. After optimizing the frequency ramp parameters, we used multiple spin flips to measure a spin-flip efficiency of 86.5±0.5%. The spin-flip efficiency was apparently limited by the field strength in the rf dipole. This result indicates that spin flipping a stored polarized proton beam should be possible in high energy rings such as the Brookhaven Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and HERA where Siberian snakes are certainly needed and only dipole rf-flipper magnets are practical.

Flow coefficients v_{n} of the orders n=1-6 are measured with the High-Acceptance DiElectron Spectrometer (HADES) at GSI for protons, deuterons, and tritons as a function of centrality, transverse momentum, and rapidity in Au+Au collisions at sqrt[s_{NN}]=2.4  GeV. Combining the information from the flow coefficients of all orders allows us to construct for the first time, at collision energies of a few GeV, a multidifferential picture of the angular emission pattern of these particles. It reflects the complicated interplay between the effect of the central fireball pressure on the emission of particles and their subsequent interaction with spectator matter. The high precision information on higher order flow coefficients is a major step forward in constraining the equation of state of dense baryonic matter.

We present the first observation of K^{-} and ϕ absorption within nuclear matter by means of π^{-}-induced reactions on C and W targets at an incident beam momentum of 1.7  GeV/c studied with HADES at SIS18/GSI. The double ratio (K^{-}/K^{+})_{W}/(K^{-}/K^{+})_{C} is found to be 0.319±0.009(stat)_{-0.012}^{+0.014}(syst) indicating a larger absorption of K^{-} in heavier targets as compared to lighter ones. The measured ϕ/K^{-} ratios in π^{-}+C and π^{-}+W reactions within the HADES acceptance are found to be equal to 0.55±0.04(stat)_{-0.07}^{+0.06}(syst) and to 0.63±0.06(stat)_{-0.11}^{+0.11}(syst), respectively. The similar ratios measured in the two different reactions demonstrate for the first time experimentally that the dynamics of the ϕ meson in nuclear medium is strongly coupled to the K^{-} dynamics. The large difference in the ϕ production off C and W nuclei is discussed in terms of a strong ϕN in-medium coupling. These results are relevant for the description of heavy-ion collisions and the structure of neutron stars.