Colliding beams of 70% polarized protons at up to s​=500 GeV, with
high luminosity, L=2×1032 cm−2sec−1, will represent a
new and unique laboratory for studying the proton. RHIC-Spin will be the first
polarized-proton collider and will be capable of copious production of jets,
directly produced photons, and W and Z bosons. Features will include direct
and precise measurements of the polarization of the gluons and of uˉ,
dˉ, u, and d quarks in a polarized proton. Parity violation searches
for physics beyond the standard model will be competitive with unpolarized
searches at the Fermilab Tevatron. Transverse spin will explore transversity
for the first time, as well as quark-gluon correlations in the proton. Spin
dependence of the total cross section and in the Coulomb nuclear interference
region will be measured at collider energies for the first time. These
qualitatively new measurements can be expected to deepen our understanding of
the structure of matter and of the strong interaction.Comment: 51 pages, 22 figures. Scheduled to appear in the Annual Review of
Nuclear and Particle Science Vol. 50, to be published in December 2000 by
Annual Reviews, http://AnnualReviews.or