Status of the RHIC Spin Program

TL;DR

The paper reviews the progress of the RHIC spin program, highlighting initial measurements of polarized proton collisions and outlining future research directions at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Contribution

It reports on the development of polarized proton collision capabilities at RHIC and presents initial experimental results from STAR and PHENIX.

Findings

First measurements of cross sections and spin asymmetries for neutral pions at 200 GeV

Progress in accelerating and colliding polarized protons at RHIC

Outlook for future spin physics research at RHIC

Abstract

The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory has been developing the capability of accelerating, storing and colliding high-energy polarized proton beams over the past several years. During this development phase, important first measurements of cross sections and spin asymmetries for neutral pions produced in polarized proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$=200 GeV have been completed by STAR and PHENIX, the two large collider experiments at RHIC. This contribution reports on progress of the RHIC spin program and provides an outlook for the future.