CERN Accelerating science

Article
Title	Pion-Muon Concentrating System for Detectors of Highly Enriched Uranium
Author(s)	Kurennoy, Sergey ; Barlow, David B ; Blind, Barbara ; Jason, Andrew J ; Neri, Filippo
Affiliation	(LANL, Los Alamos, New Mexico) ; (LANL/LANSCE, Los Alamos, New Mexico)
Publication	2005
In:	21st IEEE Particle Accelerator Conference, Knoxville, TN, USA, 16 - 20 May 2005, pp.3757
Subject category	Accelerators and Storage Rings
Abstract	One of many possible applications of low-energy antiprotons collected in a Penning trap can be a portable muon source. Released antiprotons annihilate on impact with normal matter producing on average about 3 charged pions per antiproton, which in turn decay into muons. Existence of such negative-muon sources of sufficient intensity would bring into play, for example, detectors of highly enriched uranium based on muonic X-rays. We explore options of collecting and focusing pions and resulting muons to enhance the muon flux toward the detector. Simulations with MARS and MAFIA are used to choose the target material and parameters of the magnetic system consisting of a few solenoids.