Engineering topics

Blackmore, V.

Publications and source records attributed to Blackmore, V..

9 records

DOE OSTI2019

MAUS: the MICE analysis user software

The Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment (MICE) collaboration has developed the MICE Analysis User Software (MAUS) to simulate and analyze experimental data. It serves as the primary codebase for the experiment, providing for offline batch simulation and reconstruction as well as online data quality checks. The software provides both traditional particle-physics functionalities such as track reconstruction and particle identification, and accelerator physics functions, such as calculating transfer matrices and emittances. The code design is object orientated, but has a top-level structure based on the Map-Reduce model. This allows for parallelization to support live data reconstruction during data-taking operations. MAUS allows users to develop in either Python or C++ and provides APIs for both. Various software engineering practices from industry are also used to ensure correct and maintainable code, including style, unit and integration tests, continuous integration and load testing, code reviews, and distributed version control. The software framework and the simulation and reconstruction capabilities are described.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

DOE OSTI2019

First particle-by-particle measurement of emittance in the Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment

The Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment (MICE) collaboration seeks to demonstrate the feasibility of ionization cooling, the technique by which it is proposed to cool the muon beam at a future neutrino factory or muon collider. The emittance is measured from an ensemble of muons assembled from those that pass through the experiment. A pure muon ensemble is selected using a particle-identification system that can reject efficiently both pions and electrons. The position and momentum of each muon are measured using a high-precision scintillating-fibre tracker in a 4 T solenoidal magnetic field. This paper presents the techniques used to reconstruct the phase-space distributions in the upstream tracking detector and reports the first particle-by-particle measurement of the emittance of the MICE Muon Beam as a function of muon-beam momentum.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

DOE OSTI2015

Towards Revised Step IV MICE Optics in the Absence of M1 SSD

During magnet commissioning in September 2015, the leads on coil M1 of the downstream spectrometer solenoid failed. The coil will not be operational for MICE Step IV. Revised optics settings for the Step IV data taking are reviewed.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

DOE OSTI2015

The MICE Demonstration of Ionization Cooling

Muon beams of low emittance provide the basis for the intense, well-characterised neutrino beams necessary to elucidate the physics of flavour at the Neutrino Factory and to provide lepton-antilepton collisions at energies of up to several TeV at the Muon Collider. The International Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment (MICE) will demonstrate ionization cooling, the technique by which it is proposed to reduce the phase-space volume occupied by the muon beam at such facilities. In an ionization cooling channel, the muon beam passes through a material (the absorber) in which it loses energy. The energy lost is then replaced using RF cavities. The combined effect of energy loss and re-acceleration is to reduce the transverse emittance of the beam (transverse cooling). A major revision of the scope of the project was carried out over the summer of 2014. The revised project plan, which has received the formal endorsement of the international MICE Project Board and the international MICE Funding Agency Committee, will deliver a demonstration of ionization cooling by September 2017. In the revised configuration a central lithium-hydride absorber provides the cooling effect. The magnetic lattice is provided by the two superconducting focus coils and acceleration is provided by two 201 MHz single-cavity modules. The phase space of the muons entering and leaving the cooling cell will be measured by two solenoidal spectrometers. All the superconducting magnets for the ionization cooling demonstration are available at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and the first single-cavity prototype is under test in the MuCool Test Area at Fermilab. The design of the cooling demonstration experiment will be described together with a summary of the performance of each of its components. The cooling performance of the revised configuration will also be presented.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

DOE OSTI2014

Neutrino factory

The properties of the neutrino provide a unique window on physics beyond that described by the standard model. The study of subleading effects in neutrino oscillations, and the race to discover CP-invariance violation in the lepton sector, has begun with the recent discovery that theta(13) > 0. The measured value of theta(13) is large, emphasizing the need for a facility at which the systematic uncertainties can be reduced to the percent level. The neutrino factory, in which intense neutrino beams are produced from the decay of muons, has been shown to outperform all realistic alternatives and to be capable of making measurements of the requisite precision. Its unique discovery potential arises from the fact that only at the neutrino factory is it practical to produce high-energy electron (anti) neutrino beams of the required intensity. This paper presents the conceptual design of the neutrino factory accelerator facility developed by the European Commission Framework Programme 7 EURO nu. Design Study consortium. EURO nu coordinated the European contributions to the International Design Study for the Neutrino Factory (the IDS-NF) collaboration. The EURO nu baseline accelerator facility will provide 10(21) muon decays per year from 12.6 GeV stored muon beams serving a single neutrino detector situated at a source-detector distance of between 1 500 km and 2 500 km. A suite of near detectors will allow definitive neutrino-scattering experiments to be performed.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

DOE OSTI2014

Light sterile neutrino sensitivity at the nuSTORM facility

A facility that can deliver beams of electron and muon neutrinos from the decay of a stored muon beam has the potential to unambiguously resolve the issue of the evidence for light sterile neutrinos that arises in short-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments and from estimates of the effective number of neutrino flavors from fits to cosmological data. In this paper, we show that the nuSTORM facility, with stored muons of 3.8 GeV/c ± 10%, will be able to carry out a conclusive muon neutrino appearance search for sterile neutrinos and test the LSND and MiniBooNE experimental signals with 10σ sensitivity, even assuming conservative estimates for the systematic uncertainties. This experiment would add greatly to our knowledge of the contribution of light sterile neutrinos to the number of effective neutrino flavors from the abundance of primordial helium production and from constraints on neutrino energy density from the cosmic microwave background. Here, the appearance search is complemented by a simultaneous muon neutrino disappearance analysis that will facilitate tests of various sterile neutrino models.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2013

nuSTORM - Neutrinos from STORed Muons: Proposal to the Fermilab PAC

The nuSTORM facility has been designed to deliver beams of electron neutrinos and muon neutrinos (and their anti-particles) from the decay of a stored muon beam with a central momentum of 3.8 GeV/c and a momentum acceptance of 10%. The facility is unique in that it will: 1. Allow searches for sterile neutrinos of exquisite sensitivity to be carried out; 2. Serve future long- and short-baseline neutrino-oscillation programs by providing definitive measurements of electron neutrino and muon neutrino scattering cross sections off nuclei with percent-level precision; and 3. Constitutes the crucial first step in the development of muon accelerators as a powerful new technique for particle physics. The document describes the facility in detail and demonstrates its physics capabilities. This document was submitted to the Fermilab Physics Advisory Committee in consideration for Stage I approval.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2013

Neutrinos from Stored Muons nuSTORM: Expression of Interest

The nuSTORM facility has been designed to deliver beams of electron and muon neutrinos from the decay of a stored muon beam with a central momentum of 3.8 GeV/c and a momentum spread of 10%. The facility is unique in that it will: serve the future long- and short-baseline neutrino-oscillation programmes by providing definitive measurements of electron-neutrino- and muon-neutrino-nucleus cross sections with percent-level precision; allow searches for sterile neutrinos of exquisite sensitivity to be carried out; and constitute the essential first step in the incremental development of muon accelerators as a powerful new technique for particle physics. Of the world's proton-accelerator laboratories, only CERN and FNAL have the infrastructure required to mount nuSTORM. Since no siting decision has yet been taken, the purpose of this Expression of Interest (EoI) is to request the resources required to: investigate in detail how nuSTORM could be implemented at CERN; and develop options for decisive European contributions to the nuSTORM facility and experimental programme wherever the facility is sited. The EoI defines a two-year programme culminating in the delivery of a Technical Design Report.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

DOE OSTI2011

MICE: the Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment. Step I: First Measurement of Emittance with Particle Physics Detectors

The Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment (MICE) is a strategic R&D project intended to demonstrate the only practical solution to providing high brilliance beams necessary for a neutrino factory or muon collider. MICE is under development at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) in the United Kingdom. It comprises a dedicated beamline to generate a range of input muon emittances and momenta, with time-of-flight and Cherenkov detectors to ensure a pure muon beam. The emittance of the incoming beam will be measured in the upstream magnetic spectrometer with a scintillating fiber tracker. A cooling cell will then follow, alternating energy loss in Liquid Hydrogen (LH2) absorbers to RF cavity acceleration. A second spectrometer, identical to the first, and a second muon identification system will measure the outgoing emittance. In the 2010 run at RAL the muon beamline and most detectors were fully commissioned and a first measurement of the emittance of the muon beam with particle physics (time-of-flight) detectors was performed. The analysis of these data was recently completed and is discussed in this paper. Future steps for MICE, where beam emittance and emittance reduction (cooling) are to be measured with greater accuracy, are also presented.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗