Space-charge limitations for different injection schemes at the Brookhaven relativistic heavy-ion accelerator complex

Two different ion source choices for the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) are discussed from the point of view of intensity limitations to be expected from early space-charge beam blowup effects. Simple scaling considerations indicate that such effects will be more difficult to mitigate for a proposed high-charge state EBIS-ion-source-RFQ-Linac system and single-turn AGS Booster injection as compared to the existing negative ion source — Tandem Van de Graaff multi-turn injection scheme, making it questionable whether present intensities will be matched or exceeded. Also, some presently possible avenues to larger intensities wouldnʹt be available with the new system. New ion sources should be planned as complements — not substitutes — for the present system because large heavy-ion facilities, in general, require multiple injectors and because RHIC, the largest of them all, will have an injector complex that will also serve other applications.