(1) University of Glasgow, Kelvin Building, Glasgow G12 8QQ, Scotland.
The Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment (MICE) is an experiment currently under construction at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) in the UK. The aim of the experiment is to demonstrate the concept of ionization cooling for a beam of muons, crucial for the requirements of a Neutrino Factory and a Muon Collider. Muon cooling is achieved by measuring the reduction of the four dimensional transverse emittance for a beam of muons passing through low density absorbers and then accelerating the longitudinal component of the momentum using RF cavities. The absorbers are maintained in a focusing magnetic field to reduce the beta function of the beam and the RF cavities are kept inside coupling coils. The main goal of MICE is to measure a fractional drop in emittance, of order -10% for large emittance beams, with an accuracy of 1% (which imposes a requirement that the absolute emittance be measured with an accuracy of 0.1%). This paper will discuss the status of MICE, including the progress in commissioning the muon beam line at the ISIS accelerator at RAL, the construction of the different detector elements in MICE and the prospects for the future.
NuFact09, 11th International Workshop on
Neutrino Factories, Superbeams and Beta Beams
20-25 July 2009, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago