Fiddling Carbon Strings with Polarized Proton Beams.

An innovative polarimeter based on proton carbon elastic scattering in the Coulomb Nuclear Interference (CNI) region was first successfully tested in the Brookhaven AGS. CNI Polarimeters were then installed in the AGS and both RHIC rings. The polarimeter consists of ultra-thin carbon targets and silicon strip detectors. The waveform digitizers used for signal readout allow deadtime-less data processing on the fly. Polarimeters are crucial instrumentation for the RHIC spin physics program. This paper summarizes the polarimeter design issues and operation results. © 2006 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]