Title: Observation and simulation of beam-beam induced emittance growth in RHIC
Abstract: In the recent years the peak luminosity of the RHIC polarized proton run has been improved. However, as a consequence, the luminosity lifetime is reduced. The beam emittance growth during the beam storage is a main contributor to the luminosity lifetime reduction, and it seems to be caused mainly by the beam-beam effect during collision. A simulation study of the emittance growth is performed with RHIC machine parameters using the LIFETRAC code [1]. The initial results of this study were reported in an earlier paper [2]. We present, in this paper, an in depth investigation of the emittance growth for a range of beam-beam parameters and bunch lengths. The simulation results are also compared to the available data from experimental measurements.