RHIC POLARIZED PROTON OPERATION AND HIGHLIGHTS

RHIC operation as a polarized proton collider presents unique challenges since both luminosity and spin polarization are important. Many improvements and modifications have been made since the last polarized proton operation in 2009. A 9 MHz rf system was completed that improved the longitudinal match at injection. To preserve polarization on the ramp, a new working point was chosen with the vertical tune near a third order resonance. The newly realized orbit and tune feedback systems are essential for polarization preservation. To calibrate the polarization measurement at 250 GeV, polarized protons were accelerated up to 250GeV and decelerated back to 100GeV. A vertical realignment of RHIC was conducted before the run to reduce magnet misalignment. A record peak luminosity was achieved with higher polarization at 250 GeV in this run.