MERIT - The high intensity liquid mercury target experiment at the CERN PS

The MERIT experiment is a proof-of-principle test of a target system for high power proton beams to be used as front-end for a Neutrino Factory complex or a Muon Collider. The experiment took data in autumn 2007 with the fast extracted beam from the CERN Proton Synchrotron (PS) to a maximum intensity of about 30 × 1012 protons per pulse. The target system, based on a free mercury jet, allowed investigation of the interseption of a 4-MW proton beam inside a 15-T magnetic field required to capture the low-energy secondary pions as the source of the required intense muon beams. Particle detectors have been installed around the target setup to measure the secondary particle flux out of the target and probe cavitation effects in the mercury jet when exited with a beam of variable intensity. With the analysis of the data ongoing, results will be presented here that demonstrate the validity of the liquid target concept.