A Pion Production and Capture System for a 4 MW Target Station

A study of a pion production and capture system for a 4 MW target station for a neutrino factory or muon collider is presented. Using the MARS code, we simulate the pion production produced by the interaction of a free liquid mercury jet with an intense proton beam. We study the variation of meson production with the direction of the proton beam relative to the target. We also examine the influence on the meson production by the focusing of the proton beam. The energy deposition in the capture system is determined and the shielding required in order to avoid radiation damage is discussed. The exploration for the multiple proton beam entry directions relative to mercury jet in the 8GeV proton beam case demonstrates that an asymmetric layout is required in order to achieve the same beam/jet crossing angle at the jet axis. We find a correlation between the distance of beam relative to the jet and the meson production. The peak meson production is 8% higher than for the lowest case. The examination of the influence on the meson production by the focusing of the proton beam shows the meson production loss is negligible (<1%) for a beta function to be 0.3m or higher for the proton beam. By investigating the energy deposition in the target/capture system, we see that the bulk of 4-MW proton beam power is deposited in the water cooled tungsten-carbide (WC) shielding, the mercury jet and the capture beam pipe. In addition, high power deposition in the first superconducting coil causes an issue for its operation and life time. Enhanced shielding is necessary to lower the radiation damage.