NA61-SHINE: Hadron Production Measurements for Cosmic Ray and Neutrino Experiments

As neutrino long baseline experiments enter a new domain of precision, important systematic errors due to poor knowledge of production cross-sections for pions and kaons require more measurements. The same is true for cosmic ray experiments to tune simulation models used to describe air shower profiles. Among other goals, the NA61-SHINE (SPS Heavy Ion and Neutrino Experiment) experiment at the CERN SPS aims at precision measurements (5% and below) for both neutrino and cosmic ray experiments: those will improve the prediction of the neutrino flux for the T2K experiment at J-PARC and the prediction of muon production in the propagation of air showers for the Auger experiment. Motivations for new hadron production measurements are briefly discussed. The NA61-SHINE setup and preliminary spectra for positive and negative pions obtained with the 2007 thin Carbon target data are presented. The use of the NA61 data for the T2K neutrino flux predictions is finally discussed in further details.