Alternative Muon Cooling Options based on Particle-Matter-Interaction for a Neutrino Factory

An ionization cooling channel is a tightly spaced lattice containing absorbers for reducing the momentum of the muon beam, rf cavities for restoring the momentum and strong solenoids for focusing the beam. Such a lattice is an essential feature of most designs for Neutrino Factories and Muon Colliders. Here, we explore three different approaches for designing ionization cooling channels based on periodic solenoidal focusing. Key parameters such as the engineering constraints arising from the length and separation between the solenoidal coils are systematically examined. In addition, we propose novel approaches for reducing the peak magnetic field inside the rf cavities, for example, by using bucked coils for focusing. Our lattice designs are numerically examined against two independent codes: The ICOOL and G4BL code. The performance of our proposed cooling channels is examined by implementing those to the front-end of a Neutrino Factory.