Beam-beam interaction studies at the Cornell Electron Storage Ring

The Cornell Electron Storage Ring (CESR) operates with 2 GeV multibunch electron and positron beams in a single beam pipe. Electrostatic separators are used to separate the two counterrotating beams at the parasitic crossings. When the beam energy was lowered from 5 GeV in 2003, the strength of the beam-beam interaction became a more important factor in beam-current limitations, resulting in extensive experimental and modeling studies of their characteristics. The CESR lattice design procedure has been modified recently to account explicitly for their dynamic consequences. We describe our modeling of the beam-beam interaction, experimental validation techniques, and investigations into compensation strategies.