Brookhaven Lecture

Experiments with polarized beams at RHIC will provide fundamental tests of QCD, and the electro-weak interaction reveal the spin structure of the proton. Polarization asymmetries and parity violation are the strong signatures for identification of the fundamental processes, which are otherwise inaccessible. Such experiments require the maximum available luminosity and therefore polarization must be obtained as an extra beam quality without sacrificing intensity. There are proposals to polarize the high-energy proton beam in the storage rings by the Stern-Gerlach effect or spin-filter techniques. But so far, the only practically available option is acceleration of the polarized beam produced in the source and taking care of polarization survival during acceleration and storage. Two major innovations — the "Siberian Snake" technique for polarization preservation during acceleration and high current polarized proton sources make spin physics with the high-energy polarized beams feasible. The RHIC is the first high-energy collider, where the "Siberian Snake" technique allowed of polarized proton beam acceleration up-to 250 GeV energy. </p><p> The RHIC unique Optically Pumped Polarized Ion Source produces sufficient polarized beam intensity for complete saturation of the RHIC acceptance. This polarization technique is based on spin-transfer collisions between a proton or atomic hydrogen beam of a few keV beam energy and optically pumped alkali metal vapors. From the first proposal and feasibility studies to the operational source this development can be considered as example of successful unification of individual scientists ingenuity, international collaboration and modern technology application for creation of a new polarization technique, which allowed of two-to-three order of magnitude polarized beam intensity increase sufficient for loading the RHIC to its full capacity for polarization studies.