Measurement of Neutral Particle Contamination in the MICE Muon Beam

TL;DR

This paper investigates neutral particle contamination in the MICE muon beam, using time-of-flight detectors to identify its source and assess its impact on data quality during muon cooling experiments.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of neutral particle contamination in the MICE muon beam using time-of-flight measurements.

Findings

Significant neutral particle contamination was identified in the muon beam.

Time-of-flight detectors successfully measured and characterized the contamination.

The contamination source was pinpointed, informing future beam optimization.

Abstract

The Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment (MICE) is being built at the ISIS proton synchrotron at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) to measure ionization cooling of a muon beam. During recent data-taking, it was determined that there is a significant background contamination of neutral particles populating the MICE muon beam. This contamination creates unwanted triggers in MICE, thus reducing the percentage of useful data taken during running. This paper describes the analysis done with time-of-flight detectors, used to measure and identify the source of the contamination in both positive and negative muon beams.