426
A. Ariga et al.
results of beam tests undertaken in 2016 and 2017 for the feasibility study, a pilot run
is scheduled for 2018 and physics runs are planned from 2021 after the upcoming
long shutdown of the accelerator complex at CERN.
Another proposal, called the SHiP-charm project [169], aims at measuring
the associated charm production by employing the SPS 400 GeV/c proton beam.
Charmed hadrons are produced either directly from interactions of the primary
protons or from subsequent interactions of the particles produced in the hadronic
cascade showers. Recent detailed simulation studies of proton interactions in heavy
and thick targets show a sizeable contribution from the cascade production to the
charmed hadron yield [170]. This proposal includes a study of the cascade effect to
be carried out using ECC techniques, i.e. slabs consisting of a replica of the SHiP
experiment target [171] interleaved with emulsion films. The detector is hybrid,
combining the emulsion technique with electronic detectors to provide the charge
and momentum measurement of charmed hadron decay daughters and the muon
identification. This allows a full kinematical reconstruction required by the doubledifferential cross-section measurement. According to the simulation performed, the
delivery of 2×10 7 protons on target would allow the detection of about 1000 fully
reconstructed charmed hadron pairs. An optimisation run is scheduled for 2018
and the full measurement is planned after the long shutdown LS2 of the CERN
accelerator complex, with 5 × 10 7 protons on target and a charm yield of about
2500 fully reconstructed interactions.
These two approaches, DsTau and SHiP-charm, are complementary since DsTau
will detect 10 5 charmed hadron pairs with good D s selection capability, while SHiPcharm will study about 2500 fully reconstructed charmed hadron pairs including the
hadronic cascade effect. The results of these approaches will provide essential input
for future ν τ measurements.
9.6.2.9 The SHiP Experiment
The discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012 has fully confirmed the Standard Model
of particles and fields. Nevertheless, there are still fundamental phenomena, like
the existence of dark matter, the baryon asymmetry of the Universe and the origin
of neutrino masses, that could be explained by the discovery of new particles.
Searches for new physics with accelerators are performed at the LHC, looking for
very massive particles coupled to matter with ordinary strength. A new experiment,
Search for Hidden Particles (SHiP), has been proposed [171], designed to operate at
a beam dump facility to be built at CERN and to search for weakly coupled particles
in the few GeV mass range. A beam dump facility using high intensity 400 GeV/c
protons would be a copious source of such unknown particles in the GeV mass
range. Since a high-intensity tau neutrino flux is produced by such a facility from
D s decays, the experimental apparatus foresees a neutrino detector to study the tau
neutrino cross-section and discover the tau anti-neutrino. This detector is also suited
to detect dark matter or any weakly interacting particle through its scattering off the
A. Ariga et al.
results of beam tests undertaken in 2016 and 2017 for the feasibility study, a pilot run
is scheduled for 2018 and physics runs are planned from 2021 after the upcoming
long shutdown of the accelerator complex at CERN.
Another proposal, called the SHiP-charm project [169], aims at measuring
the associated charm production by employing the SPS 400 GeV/c proton beam.
Charmed hadrons are produced either directly from interactions of the primary
protons or from subsequent interactions of the particles produced in the hadronic
cascade showers. Recent detailed simulation studies of proton interactions in heavy
and thick targets show a sizeable contribution from the cascade production to the
charmed hadron yield [170]. This proposal includes a study of the cascade effect to
be carried out using ECC techniques, i.e. slabs consisting of a replica of the SHiP
experiment target [171] interleaved with emulsion films. The detector is hybrid,
combining the emulsion technique with electronic detectors to provide the charge
and momentum measurement of charmed hadron decay daughters and the muon
identification. This allows a full kinematical reconstruction required by the doubledifferential cross-section measurement. According to the simulation performed, the
delivery of 2×10 7 protons on target would allow the detection of about 1000 fully
reconstructed charmed hadron pairs. An optimisation run is scheduled for 2018
and the full measurement is planned after the long shutdown LS2 of the CERN
accelerator complex, with 5 × 10 7 protons on target and a charm yield of about
2500 fully reconstructed interactions.
These two approaches, DsTau and SHiP-charm, are complementary since DsTau
will detect 10 5 charmed hadron pairs with good D s selection capability, while SHiPcharm will study about 2500 fully reconstructed charmed hadron pairs including the
hadronic cascade effect. The results of these approaches will provide essential input
for future ν τ measurements.
9.6.2.9 The SHiP Experiment
The discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012 has fully confirmed the Standard Model
of particles and fields. Nevertheless, there are still fundamental phenomena, like
the existence of dark matter, the baryon asymmetry of the Universe and the origin
of neutrino masses, that could be explained by the discovery of new particles.
Searches for new physics with accelerators are performed at the LHC, looking for
very massive particles coupled to matter with ordinary strength. A new experiment,
Search for Hidden Particles (SHiP), has been proposed [171], designed to operate at
a beam dump facility to be built at CERN and to search for weakly coupled particles
in the few GeV mass range. A beam dump facility using high intensity 400 GeV/c
protons would be a copious source of such unknown particles in the GeV mass
range. Since a high-intensity tau neutrino flux is produced by such a facility from
D s decays, the experimental apparatus foresees a neutrino detector to study the tau
neutrino cross-section and discover the tau anti-neutrino. This detector is also suited
to detect dark matter or any weakly interacting particle through its scattering off the