ON THE FEASIBILITY OF POLARIZED HEAVY IONS IN RHIC

Heavy nonspherical ions such as uranium have been proposed for collisions in RHIC[1]. When two such ions collide with their long axes aligned parallel to the beams (large helicities), then the plasma density might be as much as 60% higher. Since the collisions might have any orientation of the two nuclei, the alignment of the nuclei must be inferred from a complicated unfolding of multiplicity distributions. Instead, if it would be possible to polarize the ions and control the orientation in RHIC, then a much better sensitivity might be obtained. This paper investigates the manipulation of such polarized ions with highly distorted shapes in RHIC. A number of ion species are considered as possibilities with either full or partial Siberian snakes in RHIC