The brightness of the antiproton beam in Fermilab's 8 GeV Recycler ring is limited by a transverse instability. This instability has occurred during the extraction process to the Tevatron for large stacks of antiprotons even with dampers in operation. This paper describes observed features of the instability, introduces the threshold phase density to characterize the beam stability, and finds the results to be in agreement with a resistive wall instability model. Effective exclusion of the longitudinal tails from Landau damping by decreasing the depth of the RF potential well is observed to lower the threshold density by up to a factor of two.

Transverse instabilities of the antiproton beam have been observed in the Recycler ring soon after its commissioning. After installation of transverse dampers, the threshold for the instability limit increased significantly but the instability is still found to limit the brightness of the antiprotons extracted from the Recycler for Tevatron shots. In this paper, we describe observations of the instabilities during the extraction process as well as during dedicated studies. The measured instability threshold phase density agrees with the prediction of the rigid beam model within a factor of 2. Also, we conclude that the instability threshold can be significantly lowered for a bunch contained in a narrow and shallow potential well due to effective exclusion of the longitudinal tails from Landau damping.

Electron cooling was proposed to increase luminosity of the RHIC collider for heavy ion beam energies below 10 GeV/nucleon. Providing collisions at such energies, termed RHIC 'low-energy' operation, will help to answer one of the key questions in the field of QCD about existence and location of critical point on the QCD phase diagram. The electron cooling system should deliver electron beam of required good quality over energies of 0.9-5 MeV. Several approaches to provide such cooling were considered. The baseline approach was chosen and design work started. Here we describe the main features of the cooling system and its expected performance. We have started design work on a low-energy RHIC electron cooler which will operate with kinetic electron energy range 0.86-2.8 (4.9) MeV. Several approaches to an electron cooling system in this energy range are being investigated. At present, our preferred scheme is to transfer the Fermilab Pelletron to BNL after Tevatron shutdown, and to use it for DC non-magnetized cooling in RHIC. Such electron cooling system can significantly increase RHIC luminosities at low-energy operation.

The Recycler ring is an 8 GeV permanent magnet storage ring where antiprotons are accumulated and prepared for Fermilab's Tevatron Collider program. With the goal of maximizing the integrated luminosity delivered to the experiments, storing, cooling and extracting antiprotons with high efficiency has been pursued. Over the past two years, while the average accumulation rate doubled, the Recycler continued to operate at a constant level of performance thanks to changes made to the Recycler Electron Cooler (energy stability and regulation, electron beam optics), RF manipulations and operating procedures. In particular, we discuss the current accumulation cycle in which {approx} 400 x 10{sup 10} antiprotons are accumulated and extracted to the Tevatron every {approx}15 hours.