Operational experience with heavy ions at BNL: an update

Since May 1986, the heavy ion transfer line (HITL) which joins the Tandem Van de Graaff facility and the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron (AGS) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) has permitted the acceleration of heavy ions (up to sulfur) to 14.5 GeV/nucleon. The Tandem, operating with a pulsed ion source, supplies a fully stripped ion beam at about 7 MeV/nucleon which is transported via the HITL to the AGS. A low-frequency RF system accelerates the beam in the AGS to about 200 MeV/nucleon, and the high-frequency RF system, normally used for proton acceleration, completes the acceleration to 14.5 GeV/nucleon. The high-energy ion beams are delivered to four experimental beam lines using standard resonant extraction. An update of the performance and operational characteristics associated with the production, transport, and acceleration of these ion beams is presented.<
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