IMROVEMENTS OF THE RHIC RAMP EFFICIENCY

The last runs in both gold-gold and polarized proton- proton required necessary corrections in the ramp as the intensities in the two rings were rising towards design values. Corrections were made with respect to the beam- beam effects, transverse and longitudinal instabilities, transition crossing (for the gold-gold ramps), transverse tune resonances, local and global coupling problems, aperture restrictions, chromatic effects. Along the ramps we had to use the beam separation, "Landau" cavities, chromatic and tune control, orbit correction, special gamma-t quadrupole system for the transition crossing in the gold run, correction octupole circuits, beam position monitor system, decoupling etc.