Kevin Beard

Muon RLA – design status and simulations

The Neutrino Factory baseline design involves a complex chain of accelerators beginning with a linac. This first pre-linac follows the capture and bunching section and accelerates the muons from about 244 to 900 MeV and must accept a high emittance beam about 30 cm wide with a 10% energy spread. It uses counterwound, shielded superconducting solenoids and 201 MHz superconducting cavities, and currently consists of 24 3 m and 24 5 m long cryomodules. The next stage is a 1st dogbone-shaped RLA that takes the total energy from 900 MeV to 3.6 GeV in 4.5 passes, followed by a 2nd RLA that takes the energy from 3.6 to 12.6 GeV in 4.5 passes. Simulations are in progress to optimize the optics and determine the radiation loads from beam loss and muon decay.

Recirculating linear accelerators for future muon facilities

Neutrino Factories (NF) and Muon Colliders (MC) require rapid acceleration of shortlived muons to multi-GeV and TeV energies. A Recirculating Linear Accelerator (RLA) that uses superconducting RF structures can provide exceptionally fast and economical acceleration to the extent that the focusing range of the RLA quadrupoles allows each muon to pass several times through each high-gradient cavity. A new concept of rapidly changing the strength of the RLA focusing quadrupoles as the muons gain energy is being developed to increase the number of passes that each muon will make in the RF cavities, leading to greater cost effectiveness. We discuss the optics and technical requirements for RLA designs, using RF cavities capable of simultaneous acceleration of both μ+ and μ− species. The design will include the optics for the multi-pass linac and droplet-shaped return arcs.