νSTORM - Neutrinos from STORed Muons: Letter of Intent to the Fermilab Physics Advisory Committee
The idea of using a muon storage ring to produce a high-energy (≃ 50 GeV) neutrino beam for experiments was first discussed by Koshkarev in 1974. A detailed description of a muon storage ring for neutrino oscillation experiments was first produced by Neuffer in 1980. In his paper, Neuffer studied muon decay rings with E μ of 8, 4.5 and 1.5 GeV. With his 4.5 GeV ring design, he achieved a figure of merit of ≃ 6 x 10 9 useful neutrinos per 3 x 10 13 protons on target. The facility we describe here (νSTORM) is essentially the same facility proposed in 1980 and would utilize a 3-4 GeV/c muon storage ring to study eV-scale oscillation physics and, in addition, could add significantly to our understanding of ν e and ν μ cross sections. In particular the facility can: (1) address the large Δm 2 oscillation regime and make a major contribution to the study of sterile neutrinos, (2) make precision ν e and $\bar{ν}$ e cross-section measurements, (3) provide a technology (μ decay ring) test demonstration and μ beam diagnostics test bed, and (4) provide a precisely understood ν beam for detector studies. The facility is the simplest implementation of the Neutrino Factory concept. In our case, 60 GeV/c protons are used to produce pions off a conventional solid target. The pions are collected with a focusing device (horn or lithium lens) and are then transported to, and injected into, a storage ring. The pions that decay in the first straight of the ring can yield a muon that is captured in the ring. The circulating muons then subsequently decay into electrons and neutrinos. We are starting with a storage ring design that is optimized for 3.8 GeV/c muon momentum. This momentum was selected to maximize the physics reach for both oscillation and the cross section physics. See Fig. 1 for a schematic of the facility.