Delivering the world’s most intense muon beam

A new muon beam line, the muon science innovative channel, was set up at the Research Center for Nuclear Physics, Osaka University, in Osaka, Japan, using the 392 MeV proton beam impinging on a target. The production of an intense muon beam relies on the efficient capture of pions, which subsequently decay to muons, using a novel superconducting solenoid magnet system. After the pion-capture solenoid, the first 36° of the curved muon transport line was commissioned and the muon flux was measured. In order to detect muons, a target of either copper or magnesium was placed to stop muons at the end of the muon beam line. Two stations of plastic scintillators located upstream and downstream from the muon target were used to reconstruct the decay spectrum of muons. In a complementary method to detect negatively charged muons, the X-ray spectrum yielded by muonic atoms in the target was measured in a germanium detector. Measurements, at a proton beam current of 6 pA, yielded
(10.4±2.7)×10⁵ muons per watt of proton beam power (μ⁺ and  μ⁻), far in excess of other facilities. At full beam power (400 W), this implies a rate of muons of (4.2±1.1)×10⁸ muons s⁻¹, among the highest in the world. The number of μ⁻ measured was about a factor of 10 lower, again by far the most efficient muon beam produced. The setup is a prototype for future experiments requiring a high-intensity muon beam, such as a muon collider or neutrino factory, or the search for rare muon decays which would be a signature for phenomena beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. Such a muon beam can also be used in other branches of physics, nuclear and condensed matter, as well as other areas of scientific research.