Study of electron-proton beam-beam interaction in eRHIC

Beam-beam effects present one of major factors limiting the luminosity of colliders. In the linac-ring option of eRHIC design, an electron beam accelerated in a superconducting energy recovery linac collides with a proton beam circulating in the RHIC ring. There are some features of beam-beam effects, which require careful examination in linac-ring configuration. First, the beam- beam interaction can induce specific head-tail type instability of the proton beam referred to as 'kink' instability. Thus, beam stability conditions should be established to avoid proton beam loss. Also, the electron beam transverse disruption by collisions has to be evaluated to ensure beam quality is good enough for the energy recovery pass. In addition, fluctuations of electron beam current and/or electron beam size, as well as transverse offset, can cause proton beam emittance growth. The tolerances for those factors should be determined and possible countermeasures should be developed to mitigate the emittance growth. In this paper, a soft Gaussian strong-strong simulation is used to study all of mentioned beam-beam interaction features and possible techniques to reduce the emittance growth.