Quadrupole beam-based alignment in the RHIC interaction regions

Continued beam-based alignment (BBA) efforts have provided significant benefit to both heavy ion and polarized proton operations at RHIC. Recent studies demonstrated previously unknown systematic beam position monitor (BPM) offset errors and produced accurate measurements of individual BPM offsets in the experiment interaction regions. Here we describe the algorithm used to collect and analyze data during the 2010 and early 2011 RHIC runs and the results of these measurements. BBA data has been collected over the past two runs for all three of the active experimental IRs at RHIC, updating results from the 2005 run which were taken with incorrectly installed offsets. The technique was successfully applied to expose a systematic misuse of the BPM survey offsets in the control system. This is likely to benefit polarized proton operations as polarization transmission through acceleration ramps depends on RMS orbit control in the arcs, but a quantitative understanding of its impact is still under active investigation. Data taking is ongoing as are refinements to the BBA technique aimed at reducing systematic errors and properly accounting for dispersive effects. Further development may focus on non-triplet BPMs such as those located near snakes, or arc quadrupoles that do not have individually shunted power supplies (a prerequisite for the current method) and as such, will require a modified procedure.