46 research outputs found
Characterisation of the muon beams for the Muon Ionisation Cooling Experiment
A novel single-particle technique to measure emittance has been developed and used to characterise seventeen different muon beams for the Muon Ionisation Cooling Experiment (MICE). The muon beams, whose mean momenta vary from 171 to 281 MeV/c, have emittances of approximately 1.2–2.3 π mm-rad horizontally and 0.6–1.0 π mm-rad vertically, a horizontal dispersion of 90–190 mm and momentum spreads of about 25 MeV/c. There is reasonable agreement between the measured parameters of the beams and the results of simulations. The beams are found to meet the requirements of MICE
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
Demonstration of cooling by the Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment
The use of accelerated beams of electrons, protons or ions has furthered the development of nearly every scientific discipline. However, high-energy muon beams of equivalent quality have not yet been delivered. Muon beams can be created through the decay of pions produced by the interaction of a proton beam with a target. Such ‘tertiary’ beams have much lower brightness than those created by accelerating electrons, protons or ions. High-brightness muon beams comparable to those produced by state-of-the-art electron, proton and ion accelerators could facilitate the study of lepton–antilepton collisions at extremely high energies and provide well characterized neutrino beams1,2,3,4,5,6. Such muon beams could be realized using ionization cooling, which has been proposed to increase muon-beam brightness7,8. Here we report the realization of ionization cooling, which was confirmed by the observation of an increased number of low-amplitude muons after passage of the muon beam through an absorber, as well as an increase in the corresponding phase-space density. The simulated performance of the ionization cooling system is consistent with the measured data, validating designs of the ionization cooling channel in which the cooling process is repeated to produce a substantial cooling effect9,10,11. The results presented here are an important step towards achieving the muon-beam quality required to search for phenomena at energy scales beyond the reach of the Large Hadron Collider at a facility of equivalent or reduced footprint6
Transverse Emittance Reduction in Muon Beams by Ionization Cooling
Accelerated muon beams have been considered for next-generation studies of
high-energy lepton-antilepton collisions and neutrino oscillations. However,
high-brightness muon beams have not yet been produced. The main challenge for
muon acceleration and storage stems from the large phase-space volume occupied
by the beam, derived from the muon production mechanism through the decay of
pions from proton collisions. Ionization cooling is the technique proposed to
decrease the muon beam phase-space volume. Here we demonstrate a clear signal
of ionization cooling through the observation of transverse emittance reduction
in beams that traverse lithium hydride or liquid hydrogen absorbers in the Muon
Ionization Cooling Experiment (MICE). The measurement is well reproduced by the
simulation of the experiment and the theoretical model. The results shown here
represent a substantial advance towards the realization of muon-based
facilities that could operate at the energy and intensity frontiers.Comment: 23 pages and 5 figure
First demonstration of ionization cooling by the Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment
High-brightness muon beams of energy comparable to those produced by
state-of-the-art electron, proton and ion accelerators have yet to be realised.
Such beams have the potential to carry the search for new phenomena in
lepton-antilepton collisions to extremely high energy and also to provide
uniquely well-characterised neutrino beams. A muon beam may be created through
the decay of pions produced in the interaction of a proton beam with a target.
To produce a high-brightness beam from such a source requires that the phase
space volume occupied by the muons be reduced (cooled). Ionization cooling is
the novel technique by which it is proposed to cool the beam. The Muon
Ionization Cooling Experiment collaboration has constructed a section of an
ionization cooling cell and used it to provide the first demonstration of
ionization cooling. We present these ground-breaking measurements.Comment: 19 pages and 6 figure
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