| ABSTRACT: |
The discovery of neutrino oscillations implies that neutrinos are massive
and that the Standard Model is incomplete, making the neutrino sector the
only window on physics beyond the Standard Model that is presently
accessible. The worldwide consensus is that only a Neutrino Factory - an
intense high-energy neutrino source derived from the decay of a stored muon
beam - will be adequate for the requisite precision studies. The physics
case for the Neutrino Factory will be reviewed briefly and the layout of the
facility as conceived in Europe and the US will be summarised. A key
component of the R&D into the Neutrino Factory facility is the muon-beam
phase-space compression, or cooling, which it is proposed will be achieved
using ionisation cooling. The principle of ionisation cooling will be
described and possible schemes for implementing it described. The
international Muon Ionisation Cooling Experiment (MICE), which has recently
been approved at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, will provide the
engineering demonstration of the technique. The status of the preparations
for the MICE experiment will be described and the proposed implementation
schedule will be presented. |
