First demonstration of optics measurement and correction during acceleration with beta-squeeze in a high energy collider

Setting up collisions in high energy circular colliders requires beam acceleration and “beta-squeeze”. The latter produces small beam sizes, and hence, high luminosity by applying strong focusing with quadrupoles near the interaction points. At the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), these two processes, beam acceleration and beta-squeeze, have been performed simultaneously during recent years. In the past, beam optics correction at RHIC has only taken place at injection and at final energy, with interpolation of corrections partially into the acceleration cycle. Recent measurements of the beam optics during acceleration and squeeze have evidenced significant beta-beats that, if corrected, could minimize undesirable emittance dilutions and maximize the spin polarization of polarized proton beams by avoiding the high-order multipole fields sampled by particles within the bunch. We recently demonstrated beam optics corrections during acceleration at RHIC. As a valuable by-product, these corrections minimized the beta-beat at the profile monitors, so providing more accurate measurements of the evolution of the beam emittances during acceleration.