HARP: a hadron production experiment

TL;DR

HARP at CERN conducts high-precision measurements of hadron production to improve neutrino flux predictions, calibrate models, and support neutrino physics research.

Contribution

First comprehensive high-statistics measurements of hadron production cross sections at CERN for neutrino physics applications.

Findings

Precise hadron production data for neutrino flux modeling

Calibration data for Monte Carlo hadron production models

Enhanced understanding of pion production and capture processes

Abstract

Hadron production is a key ingredient in many aspects of neutrino physics. Precise prediction of atmospheric neutrino fluxes, characterization of accelerator neutrino beams, quantification of pion production and capture for neutrino factory designs, all of these would profit of high-statistics, high-precision hadron production measurements. In addition, such data is needed for the calibration of Monte-Carlo hadron production models. The HARP experiment at CERN is performing extensive measurements of cross sections and secondary particle yields to address these problems.