Past exam of the particle and nuclear physics course of the University of Cambridge / 2021 / Section B / 5 / h

Use a high-energy proton beam on a target to produce secondary pions, then select and focus the negative ones. A magnetic horn and a charge-selecting dipole system remove positive pions, limiting wrong-sign ${\nu }_{\mu }$ contamination. Select a narrow range of magnetic rigidity; if additional species rejection is available, velocity or mass discrimination reduces negative kaon contamination at the same momentum.

The selected ${\pi }^{-}$ travel through an evacuated decay tunnel and undergo ${\pi }^{-}\to {\mu }^{-}{\bar{\nu }}_{\mu }$. Their forward Lorentz boost concentrates the antineutrinos within an angle of order $1/{\gamma }_{\pi }$. Choose a tunnel long enough for substantial pion decay but short compared with the boosted muon decay length. Since ${\tau }_{\mu }\simeq 2.2\mu \mathrm{s}$ is much longer than ${\tau }_{\pi }\simeq 26\mathrm{ns}$, this reduces secondary ${\mu }^{-}\to e^{-}{\bar{\nu }}_e{\nu }_{\mu }$ contamination.

Downstream magnets sweep the remaining charged particles into absorbers, and shielding stops residual hadrons and muons. The antineutrino beam continues straight through. Parent-particle collimation, charge selection, and a forward detector improve purity; neutral-kaon decays, remaining wrong-sign parents, and muon decays prevent perfect purity. Neutrinos themselves cannot be focused or charge-selected by these magnets. Neutrinos produced after stopped-muon decay or capture are much less forward and can be reduced by directional and energy selection.