Polarization at the SLC

The Stanford Linear collider was designed to accommodate polarized electron beams. Longitudinally polarized electrons colliding with unpolarized positrons at a center of mass energy near the Z0 mass can be used as novel and sensitive probes of the electroweak process. A gallium arsenide based photon emission source will provide a beam of longitudinally polarized electrons of about 45 percent polarization. A system of bend magnets and a superconducting solenoid will be used to rotate the spins so that the polarization is preserved while the 1.21 GeV electrons are stored in the damping ring. Another set of bend magnets and two superconducting solenoids orient the spin vectors so that longitudinal polarization of the electrons is achieved at the collision point with the unpolarized positrons. A system to monitor the polarization based on Moller and Compton scattering will be used. Nearly all major components have been fabricated and tested. Subsystems of the source and polarimeters have been installed, and studies are in progress. The installation and commissioning of the entire system will take place during available machine shutdown periods as the commissioning of SLC progresses. 8 refs., 16 figs., 1 tab