FIRST RHIC COLLIDER TEST OPERATION AT 2.5GEV BEAM ENERGY

To search for the critical point in the QCD phase diagram, RHIC needs to operate at a set of low gold beam energies between 2.5 and 20 GeV per nucleon. During run 12, first successful collider operation at the lowest energy of 2.5 GeV per nucleon was achieved. We present the challenges and achieved results, and discuss possible future upgrades and improvements.