US Muon Workshop 2021: A road map for a future Muon Facility

Abstract

The workshop title “US Muon Workshop 2021: A road map for a future Muon Facility” was held virtually on February 1-2, 2021. The workshop aimed to bring together world experts in muon spectroscopy (µSR) and other techniques along with interested stakeholders to evaluate the scientific need to construct a new µSR facility in the United States (US). The more than 200 participants highlighted several key scientific areas for µSR research, including quantum materials, hydrogen chemistry, and battery materials, and how each area could benefit from a new, high flux pulsed muon source. Experts also discussed aspects of the µSR technique, such as low-energy µSR, novel software developments, alongside beam and detector technologies, that could enable revolutionary advances in µSR at a next-generation facility. The workshop concluded with discussion of a concept being developed for a new µSR facility at the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). That novel design concept was first envisioned by many of the same µSR experts at a workshop held previously at ORNL in 2016. The participants expressed that the current design had the potential to be a world-leading µSR facility, and strongly encouraged the principal investigators to continue their work in order to refine the concept and determine instrument parameters that would enable new scientific opportunities.