Particle production and survival in muon acceleration

Because of the relative immunity of muons to synchrotron radiation, the idea of using them instead of electrons as probes in high-energy physics experiments has existed for some time, but applications were limited by the short muon lifetime. The production and survival of an adequate supply of low-emittance muons will determine the available luminosity in a high-energy physics collider. In this paper the production of pions by protons, their decay to muons and the survival of muons during acceleration are studied. Based on a combination of the various efficiencies, the number of protons needed at the pion source for every muon required in the final high-energy collider is estimated