FAST AUTOMATED DECOUPLING AT RHIC

Coupling correction is essential for the operational performance of RHIC. The independence of the transverse degrees of freedom makes diagnostics and tune control easier, and it is advantageous to operate an accelerator close to the coupling resonance to minimize nearby nonlinear sidebands. An automated coupling correction application iDQmini has been developed for RHIC routine operations. The application decouples RHIC globally by minimizing the tune separation through finding the optimal settings of two orthogonal skew quadrupole families. The program iDQmini provides options of automatic, semi-automatic and manual decoupling operations. It accesses tune information from all RHIC tune measurement systems: the PLL (phase lock loop), the high frequency Schottky system and the tune meter. It also supplies tune and skew quadrupole scans, finding the minimum tune separation, display the real time results and interface with the RHIC control system. We summarize the capabilities of the coupling correction application iDQmini, and discuss the operational protections incorporated in the program