Target studies for surface muon production

Meson factories are powerful drivers of diverse physics programs. With beam powers already in the MW-regime attention has to be turned to target and beam line design to further significantly increase surface muon rates available for experiments. For this reason we have explored the possibility of using a neutron spallation target as a source of surface muons by performing detailed GEANT4 simulations with pion production cross sections based on a parametrization of existing data. While the spallation target outperforms standard targets in the backward direction by more than a factor 7 it is not more efficient than standard targets viewed under 90°. Not surprisingly, the geometry of the target plays a large role in the generation of surface muons. Through careful optimization, a gain in surface muon rate of between 30% and 60% over the standard “box-like” target used at the Paul Scherrer Institute could be achieved by employing a rotated slab target. An additional 10% gain could also be possible by utilizing novel target materials such as, e.g., boron carbide.