Development and Demonstration of 6-Dimensional Muon Beam Cooling

Ionization cooling, a method for shrinking the size of a particle beam, is an essential technique for future particle accelerators that use muons, such as muon colliders and neutrino factories. This proposal will develop an ionization-cooling channel based on helical and solenoidal magnets in a novel configuration. A Helical Cooling Channel (HCC) experiment will be designed, using simulations and prototypes, and conducted to prove that effective six-dimensional (6D) muon beam cooling can be achieved. In Phase I, a preliminary simulation of a complete experiment will be performed. Experimental significance will then be studied as a function of detector resolution, particle identification efficiency, magnetic field parameters, and absorber characteristics, using the numerical simulation. Critical technical issues will be identified for computational and experimental investigation in Phase II. Commercial Applications And Other Benefits as described by the Applicant: By applying the new techniques, a critical roadblock to intense neutrino factories and high-luminosity muon colliders would be overcome. The most important application will be an energy-frontier muon collider which achieves high luminosity by virtue of small emittance rather than large muon flux.