MICE: The muon ionization cooling experiment. Step I: First measurement of emittance with particle physics detectors

Copyright @ 2011 APSThe Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment (MICE) is a strategic R&D project intended to demonstrate the only practical solution to providing high brilliance beams necessary for a neutrino factory or muon collider. MICE is under development at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) in the United Kingdom. It comprises a dedicated beamline to generate a range of input muon emittances and momenta, with time-of-flight and Cherenkov detectors to ensure a pure muon beam. The emittance of the incoming beam will be measured in the upstream magnetic spectrometer with a scintillating fiber tracker. A cooling cell will then follow, alternating energy loss in Liquid Hydrogen (LH2) absorbers to RF cavity acceleration. A second spectrometer, identical to the first, and a second muon identification system will measure the outgoing emittance. In the 2010 run at RAL the muon beamline and most detectors were fully commissioned and a first measurement of the emittance of the muon beam with particle physics (time-of-flight) detectors was performed. The analysis of these data was recently completed and is discussed in this paper. Future steps for MICE, where beam emittance and emittance reduction (cooling) are to be measured with greater accuracy, are also presented.This work was supported by NSF grant PHY-0842798

Measurement of the production cross-sections of π±\pi^\pm in p-C and π±\pi^\pm-C interactions at 12 GeV/c

The results of the measurements of the double-differential production cross-sections of pions in p-C and $\pi^\pm$-C interactions using the forward spectrometer of the HARP experiment are presented. The incident particles are 12 GeV/c protons and charged pions directed onto a carbon target with a thickness of 5% of a nuclear interaction length. For p-C interactions the analysis is performed using 100035 reconstructed secondary tracks, while the corresponding numbers of tracks for $\pi^-$-C and $\pi^+$-C analyses are 106534 and 10122 respectively. Cross-section results are presented in the kinematic range 0.5 GeV/c $\leq p_{\pi} <$ 8 GeV/c and 30 mrad $\leq \theta_{\pi} <$ 240 mrad in the laboratory frame. The measured cross-sections have a direct impact on the precise calculation of atmospheric neutrino fluxes and on the improved reliability of extensive air shower simulations by reducing the uncertainties of hadronic interaction models in the low energy range.Comment: accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physic

Electron-muon ranger: performance in the MICE muon beam

The Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment (MICE) will perform a detailed study of ionization cooling to evaluate the feasibility of the technique. To carry out this program, MICE requires an efficient particle-identification (PID) system to identify muons. The Electron-Muon Ranger (EMR) is a fully-active tracking-calorimeter that forms part of the PID system and tags muons that traverse the cooling channel without decaying. The detector is capable of identifying electrons with an efficiency of 98.6%, providing a purity for the MICE beam that exceeds 99.8%. The EMR also proved to be a powerful tool for the reconstruction of muon momenta in the range 100–280 MeV/c

Electron-muon ranger: performance in the MICE muon beam

The Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment (MICE) will perform a detailed study of ionization cooling to evaluate the feasibility of the technique. To carry out this program, MICE requires an efficient particle-identification (PID) system to identify muons. The Electron-Muon Ranger (EMR) is a fully-active tracking-calorimeter that forms part of the PID system and tags muons that traverse the cooling channel without decaying. The detector is capable of identifying electrons with an efficiency of 98.6%, providing a purity for the MICE beam that exceeds 99.8%. The EMR also proved to be a powerful tool for the reconstruction of muon momenta in the range 100–280 MeV/c

Stopping powers of ions at 1 MeV per nucleon

The energy loss of Be-9, B-11, C-12, N-14, O-16, F-19 and N-20, ions at 1 MeV per nucleon in C, Al, Ni, CH2 (polyethylene) and PVC (polyvynilchloride) have been measured at the Louvain-la-Neuve cyclotron facility. Stopping powers are given relative to the one for 5.486 MeV He-4 ions with an uncertainty of at most 1%. Absolute stopping powers are also provided. We compare our results with previous experimental data and with semi-empirical models. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved

Star, a Solenoid and Telescope for Astrophysical Research

A set-up dedicated to the measurement of radiative capture reactions induced by proton-rich radioactive beams in reverse kinematics is described; this set-up was used to measure the Ne-19(p, gamma)Na-20 reaction, of astrophysical interest. In addition, the relative merits of two hydrogen targets, i.e. a polyethylene foil and a static gas cell, are discussed

Nuclear astrophysics experiments: Reactions and elastic scattering

Experimental methods in nuclear astrophysics experiments with radioactive beams are described, and evaluated. The importance of performing the (p, p) elastic scattering in parallel to a (p, alpha) or a (p, gamma) reaction is emphasized

Measurement of cross-sections for the Be-9(n,3n)Be-7 and Fe-56(n,p)Mn-56 reactions producing background lines in gamma-ray astrophysics

The reactions Be-9(n,3n)Be-7 and Fe-56(n,p)Mn-56 were measured between 28 and 68 MeV and at 28 MeV, respectively. These reactions lead to the emission of gamma-rays (478, 847, 1811 keV) that may be disturbing in gamma-ray astrophysics missions. Consequences regarding the induced background in detectors are drawn. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved

First results with the recoil separator ARES

We present here the first results obtained with the new recoil separator ARES. ARES is used for the measurement of (p,gamma) and (alpha,gamma) reactions at astrophysical energies in inverse kinematic using both stable and radioactive beams

The prototype of the MICE Electron-Muon Ranger: Design, construction and test

Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment (MICE) and its goal to demonstrate the feasibility of ionization cooling represent the first step toward a neutrino factory. Muons in MICE are produced by pions which derive from the interaction of protons with a target. Muons being short lived particles, a special cooling procedure has to be developed, to be able to reduce the emittance quickly. MICE intends to measure the emittance value with a 0.1% accuracy before and after the cooling element; thus a detector able to reconstruct and identify individual particles is required. The presence of electrons due to muon decay introduces a systematic error on the emittance and cooling measurements. For this reason a particle identification system is being developed based on a totally active scintillator tracker/calorimeter (Electron-Muon Ranger (EMR)). The detector consists of 40 planes of extruded scintillator bars I m long; the bars are read out with 0.8 mm WLS fibers coupled to multianode photomultipliers. The readout segmentation will be chosen accordingly to the rate (600 good muons per 1 ms spill every 1 s). This paper describes the design, construction and test at the CERN PS T9-line of the first small size prototype of the EMR with full analog readout, consisting of eight layers (4 x and 4 y) with 10 bars 19 cm long each. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved