International Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment

The International Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment (or MICE) is a high energy physics experiment designed to observe ionization cooling of muons. This is a process whereby the emittance of a beam is reduced in order to reduce the beam size, so that more muons can be accelerated in smaller aperture accelerators and with fewer focussing magnets. This might enable the construction of high intensity muon accelerators, for example for use as a Neutrino Factory or Muon Collider.

MICE will reduce 6D emittance over a single 5.5 m cooling cell and measure that reduction. The MICE design is based on a scheme outlined in Feasibility Study II. Pions will be produced from a target in the ISIS neutron source and transported along a beamline where most will decay to muons before entering MICE. MICE will measure cooling performance over a range of beam momenta between about 150 and 250 MeV/c, for various absorber materials and magnetic field configurations.