Long-range beam-beam experiments in the relativistic heavy ion collider

Abstract

Long-range beam-beam effects are a potential limit to the LHC performance with the nominal design parameters, and certain upgrade scenarios under discussion. To mitigate long-range effects, current carrying wires parallel to the beam were proposed and space is reserved in the LHC for such wires. Two current carrying wires were installed in RHIC to study the effect of strong long-range beam-beam effects in a collider, as well as test the compensation of a single long-range interaction. The experimental data were used to benchmark simulations. We summarize this work.