4-twist helix snake to maintain polarization in multi-GeV proton rings
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. Here, 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.