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Systematic muon capture rates in PQRPA

In this work we performed a systematic study of the inclusive muon capture rates for several nuclei with A < 60 using the Projected Random Quasi-particle Phase Approximation (PQRPA) as nuclear model, because it is the only RPA model that treats the Pauli Principle correctly. We reckon that the comparison between theory and data for the inclusive muon capture is not a fully satisfactory test on the nuclear model that is used. The exclusive muon transitions are more robust for such a purpose.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Muon Acceleration-RLA and FFAG

Various acceleration schemes for muons are presented. The overall goal of the acceleration systems: large acceptance acceleration to 25 GeV and 'beam shaping' can be accomplished by various fixed field accelerators at different stages. They involve three superconducting linacs: a single pass linear Pre-accelerator followed by a pair of multi-pass Recirculating Linear Accelerators (RLA) and finally a non-scaling FFAG ring. The present baseline acceleration scenario has been optimized to take maximum advantage of appropriate acceleration scheme at a given stage. The solenoid based Pre-accelerator offers very large acceptance and facilitates correction of energy gain across the bunch and significant longitudinal compression trough induced synchrotron motion. However, far off-crest acceleration reduces the effective acceleration gradient and adds complexity through the requirement of individual RF phase control for each cavity. The RLAs offer very efficient usage of high gradient superconducting RF and ability to adjust path-length after each linac pass through individual return arcs with uniformly periodic FODO optics suitable for chromatic compensation of emittace dilution with sextupoles. However, they require spreaders/recombiners switchyards at both linac ends and significant total length of the arcs. The non-scaling Fixed Field Alternating Gradient (FFAG) ring combines compactness with very large chromatic acceptance (twice the injection energy) and it allows for large number of passes through the RF (at least eight, possibly as high as 15).

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

From Neutrino Factory to Muon Collider

After summarizing the important commonalities between neutrino factories and muon colliders, the key differences are discussed. These include a much larger needed cooling factor ({approx}10{sup 6} in six-dimensional emittance), a smaller number of muon bunches (perhaps only one of each charge), and acceleration to much higher energy, implying significantly different technical choices for some of the cooling and acceleration subsystems. The final storage rings are also quite different. Nevertheless, a neutrino factory could serve as a key stepping stone on the path to a muon collider.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Progress on a Be Cavity Design

Previous RF experiments with normal-conducting cavities have demonstrated that there is a significant degradation in maximum gradient when the cavity is subjected to a strong axial magnetic field. We have developed a model suggesting that a cavity with beryllium walls may perform better than copper cavities. In this paper we outline the issues that led us to propose fabricating a Be-wall cavity. We also discuss a concept for fabricating such a cavity and mention some of the manufacturing issues we expect to face.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Research and Development for the Mu2e Extinction Monitor

Mu2e is a planned experiment to search for flavor-violating conversion from a muon to an electron. The experiment will use a pulsed 8 GeV proton beam to produce muons which will then stop in an aluminum target. Mu2e will search for the $\mu^- + Al \rightarrow e^- + Al$ process. For Mu2e, an extinction rate of 10$^{-10}$ is required to reduce the backgrounds to an acceptable level. Extinction is the ratio of the amount of protons striking the production target between beam pulses to the number striking it during the beam pulse. One of the backgrounds, off-target interactions, was simulated using G4beamline and Fermilab's Grid setup to confirm that an extinction rate of 10$^{-10}$ is possible. The extinction level will be measured by the extinction monitor which will include scintillation counters read out by photomultiplier tubes. In order to build a beam time profile, low fake responses (after pulses) are needed in the photomultiplier tubes. This thesis determines the best combination of resistors, voltage, and other components that provide the lowest after pulse rate.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Scaling FFAG accelerator for muon acceleration

Recent developments in scaling fixed field alternating gradient (FFAG) accelerators have opened new ways for lattice design, with straight sections, and insertions like dispersion suppressors. Such principles and matching issues are detailed in this paper. An application of these new concepts is presented to overcome problems in the PRISM project.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Muon density enhancement with a tapered capillary method

The focusing effect of a muon beam with a tapered capillary method has been investigated in a range from 4.2 MeV to 9.2 MeV (i.e. from 30 MeV/c to 45 MeV/c in momentum). We injected the muon beam into a pair of narrowing (tapered) plates and tubes made of glass, copper and gold-coated copper, and measured the energy distribution of the muon leaving from the outlet. The plates were tilted from an inlet of 40 mm to an outlet of 20 mm. The density enhancement was more prominent with the plates made of heavier elements. The largest beam density enhancement at 10 mm downstream of the outlet was 1.3 with the gold-coated copper narrowing plates. The enhancement was composed of muons scattered with a small angle. Their energy was slightly less than that of the initial beam. This effect did not depend on the surface roughness. The result strongly suggests a simple and effective way to increase the muon beam density for a small target.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Performance of a Drift Chamber Candidate for a Cosmic Muon Tomography System

In the last decade, many groups around the world have been exploring different ways to probe transport containers which may contain illicit Special Nuclear Materials such as uranium. The muon tomography technique has been proposed as a cost effective system with an acceptable accuracy. A group of Canadian institutions (see above), funded by Defence Research and Development Canada, is testing different technologies to track the cosmic muons. One candidate is the single wire Drift Chamber. With the capability of a 2D impact position measurement, two detectors will be placed above and two below the object to be probed. In order to achieve a good 3D image quality of the cargo content, a good angular resolution is required. The simulation showed that 1mrad was required implying the spatial resolution of the trackers must be in the range of 1 to 2 mm for 1 m separation. A tracking system using three prototypes has been built and tested. The spatial resolution obtained is 1.7 mm perpendicular to the wire and 3 mm along the wire.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Recent COMPASS Results on Transverse Physics

The investigation of transverse spin and transverse momentum dependent effects in deep inelastic scattering of muons off nucleons is one of the key physics programs of the COMPASS collaboration at CERN. We have investigated the effects from the data obtained with a polarized proton target. In order to access the transversity distribution function, following channels have been analyzed: The azimuthal distribution of single hadrons, the azimuthal dependence of the plane containing hadron pairs, and the measurement of the transverse polarization of lambda hyperons in the final state. The Sivers distribution function which is one of the transverse momentum dependent functions has been investigated also from the azimuthal distribution of single hadrons. Azimuthal asymmetries in unpolarized deep inelastic scattering give important information on the inner structure of the nucleon to access the so-far unmeasured Boer-Mulders function. We have measured these asymmetries using spin-averaged {sup 6}L{sub i}D.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Recent results from COMPASS muon scattering measurements

A sample of recent results in muon scattering measurements from the COMPASS experiment at CERN will be reviewed. These include high energy processes with longitudinally polarised proton and deuteron targets. High energy polarised measurements provide important constraints for studying the nucleon spin structure and thus permit to test the applicability of the theoretical framework of factorisation theorems and perturbative QCD. Specifically, latest results on longitudinal quark polarisation, quark helicity densities and gluon polarisation will be reviewed.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

GPD physics with polarized muon beams at COMPASS-II

A major part of the future COMPASS program is dedicated to the investigation of the nucleon structure through Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering (DVCS) and Deeply Virtual Meson Production (DVMP). COMPASS will measure DVCS and DVMP reactions with a high intensity muon beam of 160 GeV and a 2.5 m-long liquid hydrogen target surrounded by a new TOF system. The availability of muon beams with high energy and opposite charge and polarization will allow to access the Compton form factor related to the dominant GPD H and to study the x{sub B}-dependence of the t-slope of the pure DVCS cross section and to study nucleon tomography. Projections on the achievable accuracies and preliminary results of pilot measurements will be presented.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Simulation of atmospheric temperature effects on cosmic ray muon flux

The collision between a cosmic ray and an atmosphere nucleus produces a set of secondary particles, which will decay or interact with other atmosphere elements. This set of events produced a primary particle is known as an extensive air shower (EAS) and is composed by a muonic, a hadronic and an electromagnetic component. The muonic flux, produced mainly by pions and kaons decays, has a dependency with the atmosphere’s effective temperature: an increase in the effective temperature results in a lower density profile, which decreases the probability of pions and kaons to interact with the atmosphere and, consequently, resulting in a major number of meson decays. Such correlation between the muon flux and the atmosphere’s effective temperature was measured by a set of experiments, such as AMANDA, Borexino, MACRO and MINOS. This phenomena can be investigated by simulating the final muon flux produced by two different parameterizations of the isothermal atmospheric model in CORSIKA, where each parameterization is described by a depth function which can be related to the muon flux in the same way that the muon flux is related to the temperature. This research checks the agreement among different high energy hadronic interactions models and the physical expected behavior of the atmosphere temperature effect by analyzing a set of variables, such as the height of the primary interaction and the difference in the muon flux.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

The Mu2e crystal calorimeter and improvements in the $\mu^-\mbox{N} \to e^-\mbox{N}$ search sensitivity

The Mu2e experiment will search for Charged Lepton Flavor Violation (CLFV) looking at the conversion of a muon into an electron in the field of an aluminum nucleus. About $7\cdot 10^{17}$ muons, provided by a dedicated muon beam line in construction at the Fermi National Accelarator Laboratory (Fermilab), will be stopped in 3 years in the Aluminum target. The corresponding single event sensitivity will be $2.5\cdot 10^{-17}$. The Standard Model of particle physics, even extendend to include the finite neutrino masses, predicts the ratio R μe between muon conversions and muon nuclear captures to be $\sim 10^{- 52}$. Several extensions of the Standard Model predict R μe to be in the range of $10^{-14} - 10^{-18}$. % The current best experimental limit, set by the SINDRUM II experiment is $7 \cdot 10^{-13}$ @ $90\%$ CL. The Mu2e experiment plans to improve this experimental limit by four order of magnitude to test many of the possible extensions of the Standard Model. To reach this ambitious goal, the Mu2e experiment is expected to use an intense pulsed muon beam, and rely on a detector system composed of a straw tube tracker and a calorimeter made of pure CsI crystals. The calorimeter plays a central role in the Mu2e measurement, providing particle identification capabilities that are necessary for rejecting two of the most dangerous background sources that can mimic the μ⁻N → e⁻N conversion electron: cosmic muons and $\bar{p}$ induced background. The calorimeter information allows also to improve the tracking performance. Thanks to a calorimeter-seeded track finder algorithm, it is possible to increase the track reconstruction efficiency, and make it more robust with respect to the occupancy level. Expected performances of the calorimeter have been studied in a beam test at the Beam Test Facility in Frascati (Rome, Italy). A reduced scale calorimeter prototype has been exposed to an electron beam, with energy varying from 80 to 140 MeV, for measuring the timing resolution and validate the Monte Carlo prediction. A timing resolution $\sigma_{\rm t}<200$ ps @ 100 MeV has been obtained. Combination of the background rejection performance, and the improvements in the track reconstruction, have then been used in the calculation of the expected Mu2e sensitivity.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗