Progress Towards Completion of the MICE Demonstration of Sustainable Muon Ionization Cooling

Abstract

The Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment (MICE) at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory aims at demonstrating a ∼ 5% ionization cooling effect on a muon beam by its interaction with low-Z absorber materials followed by restoration of longitudinal momentum in RF cavities. The final configuration of MICE will add to the Step IV hardware a second Focus Coil module and two 201.25 MHz RF cavities to provide a 10.3 MV/m accelerating gradient. This requires an RF drive system and distribution network to deliver ∼2MW of power in 1 ms pulses at 1 Hz repetition rate to each cavity with correct RF phasing and diagnostics to determine the gradient and the muon transit phase. Progress towards the completion of the final configuration is described.

Pion contamination in the MICE muon beam

“…Three lithium hydride (LiH) absorbers, two radio-frequency (RF) cavities and two Focus Coil solenoid magnets will be used to reduce the transverse emittance of the muon beam by up to 8%, depending on the beam configuration [15]. The goal of MICE is to measure the transverse normalised emittance before and after the cooling cell with an accuracy of 0.1%.…”