Mucool Test Area at Fermilab

A new experimental area designed to develop, test and verify muon ionization cooling apparatus using the 400-MeV Fermilab Linac proton beam began construction in spring, 2002. This area will be used initially for cryogenic tests of liquid-hydrogen absorbers for the MUCOOL R&D program and, later, for high-power beam tests of these absorbers and other prototype muon-cooling apparatus. The experimental scenarios being developed for muon facilities involve collection, capture, and cooling of large-emittance, high-intensity muon beams--∼ 1013 muons at a repetition rate of 15Hz, so that conclusive tests of the apparatus require full Linac beam, or 1.6 x 1013 p at 15 Hz. To support the muon cooling facility, a new primary beamline will divert beam from the Linac to the test facility. Located southwest of Wilson Hall between the Linac berm and parking lot, implementation of the facility and associated beamline takes advantage of civil construction and resources that remain from the 400-MeV Linac Upgrade Project. The design concept for the MuCool facility is taken from an earlier proposal[1], but modifications to the existing proposal were necessary to accommodate high-intensity beam, cryogenics, and the increased scale of the cooling experiments. This paper reports on the initial low-intensity (Phase I) implementation of the MuCool Test Area (MTA).