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Muon Colliders

Jean Pierre Delahaye, Marcella Diemoz, Ken Long, Bruno Mansoulié, Nadia Pastrone, Lenny Rivkin, Daniel Schulte, Alexander Skrinsky, Andrea Wulzer

TL;DR

This work assesses the physics case, technical feasibility, and roadmap for muon colliders as high-energy lepton frontier machines. It contrasts proton-driver and low-emittance positron-driver concepts, detailing cooling, acceleration, and magnet challenges, and documents progress from MAP, MICE, and LEMMA experiments. It argues that muon colliders could reach multi-TeV center-of-mass energies with full beam energy available for collisions, while a staged R&D program is needed to address cooling, backgrounds, and neutrino radiation limits. The study recommends international collaboration and coordinated R&D to mature muon technology toward a potential future facility.

Abstract

Muon colliders have a great potential for high-energy physics. They can offer collisions of point-like particles at very high energies, since muons can be accelerated in a ring without limitation from synchrotron radiation. However, the need for high luminosity faces technical challenges which arise from the short muon lifetime at rest and the difficulty of producing large numbers of muons in bunches with small emittance. Addressing these challenges requires the development of innovative concepts and demanding technologies. The document summarizes the work done, the progress achieved and new recent ideas on muon colliders. A set of further studies and actions is also identified to advance in the field. Finally, a set of recommendations is listed in order to make the muon technology mature enough to be favourably considered as a candidate for high-energy facilities in the future.

Muon Colliders

TL;DR

This work assesses the physics case, technical feasibility, and roadmap for muon colliders as high-energy lepton frontier machines. It contrasts proton-driver and low-emittance positron-driver concepts, detailing cooling, acceleration, and magnet challenges, and documents progress from MAP, MICE, and LEMMA experiments. It argues that muon colliders could reach multi-TeV center-of-mass energies with full beam energy available for collisions, while a staged R&D program is needed to address cooling, backgrounds, and neutrino radiation limits. The study recommends international collaboration and coordinated R&D to mature muon technology toward a potential future facility.

Abstract

Muon colliders have a great potential for high-energy physics. They can offer collisions of point-like particles at very high energies, since muons can be accelerated in a ring without limitation from synchrotron radiation. However, the need for high luminosity faces technical challenges which arise from the short muon lifetime at rest and the difficulty of producing large numbers of muons in bunches with small emittance. Addressing these challenges requires the development of innovative concepts and demanding technologies. The document summarizes the work done, the progress achieved and new recent ideas on muon colliders. A set of further studies and actions is also identified to advance in the field. Finally, a set of recommendations is listed in order to make the muon technology mature enough to be favourably considered as a candidate for high-energy facilities in the future.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 12 sections, 3 equations, 2 figures, 1 table.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Physics
  3. Machine Design
  4. Introduction
  5. Proton driver scheme
  6. Design status
  7. R&D
  8. Positron driver scheme
  9. R&D
  10. Backgrounds and Detector Studies
  11. Implementations
  12. Conclusions and recommendations

Figures (2)

  • Figure 1: Left panel: the energy at which the proton collider cross-section equals that of a muon collider. The dashed line assumes comparable Feynman amplitudes for the muon and the proton production processes. A factor of ten enhancement of the proton production amplitude squared, possibly due to QCD production, is considered in the continuous line. Right panel: Higgs and top-quark production cross-sections at high energy lepton colliders.
  • Figure 2: Schematic layouts of Muon Collider complexes based on the proton driver scheme and on the low emittance positron driver scheme emphasizing synergies.