Achieving 99.9% proton spin-flip efficiency at higher energy with a small RF dipole

Area of Science:

• Particle Physics
• Accelerator Physics

Background:

• Proton beam polarization is crucial for high-energy physics experiments.
• Efficient spin flipping techniques are needed for advanced collider operations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effectiveness of a new ferrite radio frequency (RF) dipole for flipping the polarization of a stored proton beam.
• To determine the optimal parameters for achieving high spin-flip efficiency.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a ferrite RF dipole to induce spin resonance in a 2.1 GeV/c vertically polarized proton beam at the COSY Cooler Synchrotron.
• Swept the RF dipole frequency through the spin resonance, varying frequency range, ramp time, and number of flips.
• Measured spin-flip efficiency at maximum RF dipole strength and optimized parameters.

Main Results:

• Achieved a spin-flip efficiency of 99.92 ± 0.04% under optimal conditions.
• Demonstrated the feasibility of efficient spin flipping at lower energies (2.1 GeV/c).

Conclusions:

• The results suggest that a slightly stronger RF dipole could enable efficient spin flipping in high-energy colliders like the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
• The Lorentz invariance of the transverse integral Bdl and weak energy dependence of spin-resonance strength support scalability to higher energies.