Collaborative Research: Participation in the MICE Experiment

人们对使用粒子加速器形成非常强的高能µ子束的兴趣与日俱增。然而，由于它的平均寿命很短(2.2微秒)，所以不可能加速Muon束。论证Muon加速器可行性的一个关键步骤是Muon电离冷却实验(MICE)。加速高强度的介子束的主要障碍是，这种束流的产生方式使它们太大，无法放入同步加速器的真空室中，而且介子寿命短，几乎没有时间收缩束流。电离冷却是一种快速收缩或冷却介子束的新技术。小鼠的目标是建立一段电离-冷却通道，用仪器测量其冷却性能，并使用粒子加速器产生的缪子束来演示它的工作原理。来自欧洲、亚洲和美国的约150名物理学家和工程师共同努力，在英国的卢瑟福·阿普尔顿实验室安装MICE。该仪器的建造目前正在进行中，预计将在此处提议的三年赠款期间进行实验和结果分析。这项提案要求为伊利诺伊理工学院MICE小组提供续期资金，以支持美国在Muon冷却方面的持续领导地位，以及一旦证明电离冷却的可行性，可能在美国或其他地方建设的Muon加速器设施。这项工作的更广泛影响最明显的是，在中微子工厂使用了加速的µ子束，这被认为是迄今构思的最强大的工具，目的是为了了解中微子的神秘振荡行为，以及它在我们生活的物质主导的宇宙演化中可能扮演的角色。此外，MICE的发展、运行和分析的节奏特别适合学生的培养。MICE大约需要三年时间才能完成，非常适合典型的物理专业学生--S研究生的培养。

There is increasing interest in using particle accelerators to form very intense beams of high-energy muons. However, due to its short average lifetime (2.2 microseconds), it has not been possible to accelerate a muon beam. A key step in demonstrating the feasibility of muon accelerators is the Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment (MICE). The main obstacle to accelerating an intense muon beam is that the way such beams are created makes them too large to fit into the vacuum chamber of a synchrotron, and the short muon lifetime leaves little time to shrink the beam. Ionization cooling is a new technique to shrink, or cool a muon beam quickly. The goal of MICE is to build a section of an ionization-cooling channel, instrument it to measure its cooling performance, and use a muon beam produced at a particle accelerator to demonstrate that it works as designed. A collaborative effort of some 150 physicists and engineers from Europe, Asia, and the US, MICE is being mounted at England's Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. Construction of the apparatus is currently in progress, and the running of the experiment and analysis of its results is expected to take place during the 3-year period of the grant proposed here. This proposal requests renewal funding for the Illinois Institute of Technology MICE group in support of continued US leadership in muon cooling and in the muon accelerator facilities that might be constructed, in the US or elsewhere, once the feasibility of ionization cooling is demonstrated. The broader impact of this work is most evident in the use of an accelerated muon beam for a Neutrino Factory recognized as the most powerful tool yet conceived in the quest to understand the mysterious oscillatory behavior of the neutrino and its possible role in the evolution of the matter-dominated Universe in which we live. In addition, the pace of MICE development, running, and analysis is particularly well suited to the training of students. MICE will take approximately three years to complete, a good fit to the typical physics student?s graduate training.