Report on EUCARD WP6: MICE Transnational Access (TA)

1. Report on EUCARD WP6: MICE Transnational Access (TA) Norman McCubbin Director, Particle Physics Department EUCARD: Frascati November 2009

2. Brief introduction to MICE • MICE = Muon Ionisation Cooling Experiment • Key step for feasibility of neutrino factory and muon collider. • MICE is sited at STFC’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, and uses a specially developed secondary beam from the ISIS proton synchrotron (800 MeV). • MICE is both a FACILITY: • Beam line plus associated infrastructure of monitoring, tracking and emittance measurement • and an EXPERIMENT: • Test of a particular cooling technique using ionisation loss and acceleration. • MICE is an international collaboration of ~150 physicists and engineers from Bulgaria, China, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Russia, Switzerland, UK, USA. (http://mice.iit.edu )

3. ISIS MICE Hall R5.2 3

4. MICE Schedule as of Sept 2009 Run date: m STEP I Sep-Dec 2009 (running now) STEP II Q2/Q3 2010 STEP III/III.1 Q4 2010 -> 2011 STEP IV 2011 STEP V 2012-2013 STEP VI 2013

5. Chris Booth – 16th October 2009

6. EuCARD: MICE TA (WP6) • Transnational Access (TA) to MICE is obviously a good fit to the EuCARD aim of supporting the development of a European Research Area in accelerator science and strengthening collaboration among European partners. • The MICE TA award to STFC is 222k€ (Euro), of which 180k€ is to be used for funding TA directly and the rest is a contribution to the management and associated costs of the scheme. • Scheme runs for 48 months starting 1 April 2009. STFC has received ~£52k as a first instalment. • The eligibility and selection process are set out in the EuCARD Annex I “Description of Work” agreed with the Commission in March 2009. • TA funding is to be used: • to support detector commissioning, data-taking and analysis of MICE itself; • testing detectors using the MICE low-energy beam; and • development of new ideas for particle cooling. • It is explicitly stated that MICE collaborators are among the users who can be supported under the scheme.

7. EUCARD: MICE TA (WP6) Annex I also specifies the Collaboration MICE Project Board (CMPB) as the panel to run the selection of TA users. The CMPB is a forum for representatives from MICE and STFC to monitor and discuss progress on the experiment. Its membership comprises senior members of the MICE collaboration and senior STFC staff who are not MICE collaborators. Details of the applications procedure have been posted on the EuCARD web site, and is cross-linked to the MICE page. Three applications (from groups in Como, Milano/Pavia/ Roma, and Sofia) have been received and reviewed by the CMPB, with input from an independent expert, Prof. K.J. Peach (JAI, Oxford); Awards (to all three groups) for a total of ~30k Euros have been approved and announced. Norman McCubbin 7

8. EUCARD: MICE TA (WP6) Processing these first applications has identified improvements needed in the documentation (eg updating the MICE schedule) and advertising of the scheme (MICE collaboration, EuCARD and other newsletters, CERN Courier,..) and these will be made. In addition, we have realised that the review process would be improved by having a small, dedicated group carrying out the reviewing. Since the CMPB is in any case being re-constituted to focus on the task of oversight of the MICE project as a whole, we will take this opportunity to form such a small group, and Prof. Peach has already agreed to chair it. All future applications will be reviewed by this group, which will advise Prof. Norman McCubbin (MICE TA co-ordinator). Norman McCubbin 8