Electron Spin Tracking Studies for the EIC

Over the past century, particle accelerators have evolved from simple cathode-ray tubes to massive machines that can accelerate particles to nearly the speed of light and collide them, all while controlling their spins to point in a desired direction. The Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) to be built at Brookhaven National Laboratory will push the frontier even further, providing spin-polarized collisions of electrons and protons/light-ions for a wide range of center-of-mass energies. The Electron Storage Ring (ESR) of the EIC must be designed so that polarization is maintained for an acceptable amount of time before polarized bunch replacements are necessary. Electrons emit synchrotron radiation, which has significant depolarizing effects that must be accounted for. And, the eventual insertion of a vertical emittance creator into the lattice – necessary to match the electron and ion beam sizes – further complicates the depolarization problem. In this talk, the findings of various Monte Carlo spin tracking studies of the preliminary ESR lattices will be presented, and their consequences on the design explored.