Intense Muon Beam R&D

Scientific Motivation

Constructing a Neutrino Factory would shed light on important topics in high-energy physics concerning neutrino masses and neutrino mixing. In particular, the hope is to observe, for the first time, evidence for charge-conjugation-parity (CP) violation in the lepton sector. If such evidence is found, it may finally provide the explanation for the observed matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe—-a feature that accounts for our very existence. Moreover, muons have important benefits compared with either electrons or protons when considering a possible next step for an energy frontier high-energy physics facility. Since synchrotron radiation by muons is highly suppressed compared with electrons, it is feasible to consider a relatively compact circular collider in the TeV energy range, which enables multiple passes through the expensive RF system. Also, the muon, like the electron, is a point particle and therefore can explore the same physics regime as would protons having approximately ten times higher energy. Accordingly, the idea of someday building a muon collider has attracted increasing interest in recent years.

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Technical Challenges