Measurements of hadron production cross sections and secondary particle yields in the energy range 2-15 GeV using neutrino beam targets

The HARP experiment at CERN is performing extensive measurements of hadron production cross sections and secondary particle yields in the energy range 2-15 GeV over the full solid angle, using a large set of cryogenic and solid targets. Hadron production in this kinematic region is a relevant ingredient in several branches of neutrino physics, such as characterisation of neutrino beams, precise prediction of atmospheric neutrino fluxes, and measurement of pion production and capture for neutrino factory design. An overall precision of a few percent is required from the experiment to reach the final aim. First measurements of hadron production cross sections in the forward region (up to about 300 mrad), using a replica of the K2K target and a proton beam of 12.9 GeV/c, are reported. This is an appealing physics case, given the immediate interest for these experiments and for the neutrino community