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The Long Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF) will utilize a beamline located at Fermilab to provide and aim a wide band beam of neutrinos of sufficient intensity and appropriate energy toward DUNE detectors, placed 4850 feet underground at SURF in South Dakota, about 1,300 km away. The primary proton beam (60-120 GeV) will be extracted from the MI-10 section of Fermilab's Main Injector. Neutrinos are produced after the protons hit a four-interaction length solid target and produce mesons which are subsequently focused by a set of three magnetic horns into a 194 m long helium filled decay pipe where they decay into muons and neutrinos. The parameters of the facility were determined taking into account the physics goals, spatial and radiological constraints, extensive simulations and the experience gained by operating the NuMI facility at Fermilab. The Beamline facility is designed for initial operation at a proton-beam power of 1.2 MW, with the capability to support an upgrade to about 2.4 MW. LBNF/DUNE obtained CD-1 approval in November 2015 and CD-3a approval in September 2016. We discuss here the Beamline design status and the associated challenges., Proceedings of the 9th Int. Particle Accelerator Conf., IPAC2018, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Beryllium is extensively used in various accelerator beam lines and target facilities as material for beam windows, and to a lesser extent, as secondary particle production targets. With increasing beam intensities of future accelerator facilities, it is critical to understand the response of beryllium under extreme conditions to avoid compromising particle production efficiency by limiting beam parameters. As a result, the planned experiment at CERN’s HiRadMat facility will take advantage of the test facility’s tunable high intensity proton beam to probe and investigate the damage mechanisms of several grades of beryllium. The test matrix will consist of multiple arrays of thin discs of varying thicknesses as well as cylinders, each exposed to increasing beam intensities. Online instrumentations will acquire real time temperature, strain, and vibration data of the cylinders, while Post-Irradiation-Examination (PIE) of the discs will exploit advanced microstructural characterization and imaging techniques to analyze grain structures, crack morphology and surface evolution. Details on the experimental design, online measurements and planned PIE efforts are described in this paper., Proceedings of the 6th Int. Particle Accelerator Conf., IPAC2015, Richmond, VA, USA

The RaDIATE collaboration (Radiation Damage In Accelerator Target Environments), founded in 2012, has grown to over 50 participants and 14 institutions globally. The primary objective is to harness existing expertise in nuclear materials and accelerator targets to generate new and useful materials data for application within the accelerator and fission/fusion communities. Current activities include post-irradiation examination of materials taken from existing beamlines (such as the NuMI beryllium primary beam window and graphite target fins from Fermilab) as well as new irradiations of candidate target materials at low energy and high energy beam facilities (such as titanium and aluminum alloys, glassy carbon, TZM and tungsten). In addition, the program includes thermal shock experiments utilizing high intensity proton beam pulses available at the HiRadMat facility at CERN. Status of current RaDIATE activities as well as future plans will be discussed, including highlights of preliminary results from various ongoing RaDIATE activities and the high level plan to explore the high-power accelerator target relevant thermal shock and radiation damage parameter space., Proceedings of the 8th Int. Particle Accelerator Conf., IPAC2017, Copenhagen, Denmark

Beryllium is extensively used in various accelerator beam lines and target facilities as material for beam windows, and to a lesser extent, as secondary particle production targets. With increasing beam intensities of future accelerator facilities, it is critical to understand the response of beryllium under extreme conditions to reliably operate these components as well as avoid compromising particle production efficiency by limiting beam parameters. As a result, an exploratory experiment at CERN's HiRadMat facility was carried out to take advantage of the test facility's tunable high intensity proton beam to probe and investigate the damage mechanisms of several beryllium grades. The test matrix consisted of multiple arrays of thin discs of varying thicknesses as well as cylinders, each exposed to increasing beam intensities. This paper outlines the experimental measurements, as well as findings from Post-Irradiation-Examination (PIE) work where different imaging techniques were used to analyze and compare surface evolution and microstructural response of the test matrix specimens., Proceedings of the North American Particle Accelerator Conf., NAPAC2016, Chicago, IL, USA

The Long Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF) project will build a beamline located at Fermilab to create and aim an intense neutrino beam of appropriate energy range toward the DUNE detectors at the SURF facility in Lead, South Dakota. Neutrino production starts in the Target Station, which consists of a solid target, magnetic focusing horns, and the associated sub-systems and shielding infrastructure. Protons hit the target producing mesons which are then focused by the horns into a helium-filled decay pipe where they decay into muons and neutrinos. The target and horns are encased in actively cooled steel and concrete shielding in a chamber called the target chase. The reference design chase is filled with air, but nitrogen and helium are being evaluated as alternatives. A replaceable beam window separates the decay pipe from the target chase. The facility is designed for initial operation at 1.2 MW, with the ability to upgrade to 2.4 MW, and is taking advantage of the experience gained by operating Fermilab's NuMI facility. We discuss here the design status, associated challenges, and ongoing R&D and physics-driven component optimization of the Target Station., Proceedings of the North American Particle Accelerator Conf., NAPAC2016, Chicago, IL, USA

The Long Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF) will utilize a beamline located at Fermilab to provide and aim a neutrino beam of sufficient intensity and appropriate energy range toward the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) detectors, placed deep underground at the SURF Facility in Lead, South Dakota. The primary proton beam (60-120 GeV) will be extracted from the MI-10 section of Fermilab's Main Injector. Neutrinos will be produced when the protons interact with a solid target to produce mesons which will be subsequently focused by magnetic horns into a 194m long decay pipe where they decay into muons and neutrinos. The parameters of the facility were determined taking into account the physics goals, spatial and radiological constraints, and the experience gained by operating the NuMI facility at Fermilab. The Beamline facility is designed for initial operation at a proton-beam power of 1.2 MW, with the capability to support an upgrade to 2.4 MW. LBNF/DUNE obtained CD-1 approval in November 2015. We discuss here the design status and the associated challenges as well as the R&D and plans for improvements before baselining the facility., 3 pp

Fermilab’s Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF) will utilize a modified design based on the NuMI low energy target that is reconfigured to accommodate beam operation at 1.2 MW. Achieving this power with a graphite target material and ancillary systems originally rated for 400 kW requires several design changes and R&D efforts related to material bonding and electrical isolation. Target cooling, structural design, and fabrication techniques must address higher stresses and heat loads that will be present during 1.2 MW operation, as the assembly will be subject to cyclic loads and thermal expansion. Mitigations must be balanced against compromises in neutrino yield. Beam monitoring and subsystem instrumentation will be updated and added to ensure confidence in target positioning and monitoring. Remote connection to the target hall support structure must provide for the eventual upgrade to a 2.4 MW target design, without producing excessive radioactive waste or unreasonable exposure to technicians during reconfiguration. Current designs and assembly layouts will be presented, in addition to current findings on processes and possibilities for prototype and final assembly fabrication., Proceedings of the 6th Int. Particle Accelerator Conf., IPAC2015, Richmond, VA, USA

The Long Baseline Neutrino Experiment (LBNE) will utilize a neutrino beamline facility located at Fermilab. The facility is designed to aim a beam of neutrinos toward a detector placed in South Dakota. The neutrinos are produced in a three-step process. First, protons from the Main Injector hit a solid target and produce mesons. Then, the charged mesons are focused by a set of focusing horns into the decay pipe, towards the far detector. Finally, the mesons that enter the decay pipe decay into neutrinos. The parameters of the facility were determined by an amalgam of the physics goals, the Monte Carlo modeling of the facility, and the experience gained by operating the NuMI facility at Fermilab. The initial beam power is expected to be ~700 kW, however some of the parameters were chosen to be able to deal with a beam power of 2.3 MW. The LBNE Neutrino Beam has made significant changes to the initial design through consideration of numerous Value Engineering proposals and the current design is described., Comment: 3 pp

Recent P5 report indicated the accelerator-based neutrino and rare decay physics research as a centrepiece of the US domestic HEP program. Operation, upgrade and development of the accelerators for the near-term and longer-term particle physics program at the Intensity Frontier face formidable challenges. Here we discuss accelerator physics and technology research toward future multi-MW proton accelerators., Comment: 4 pp. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1511.00390

A compact fatigue testing machine that can be easily inserted into a hot cell for characterization of irradiated materials is beneficial to help determine relative fatigue performance differences between new and irradiated material. Hot cell use has been carefully considered by limiting the size and weight of the machine, simplifying sample loading and test setup for operation via master-slave manipulator, and utilizing an efficient design to minimize maintenance. Funded from a US-Japan collaborative effort, the machine has been specifically designed to help characterize titanium material specimens. These specimens are flat cantilevered beams for initial studies, possibly utilizing samples irradiated at other sources of beam. The option to test spherically shaped samples cut from the T2K vacuum window is also available. The machine is able to test a sample to 10⁷ cycles in under a week, with options to count cycles and sense material failure. The design of this machine will be presented along with current status., Proceedings of the 6th Int. Particle Accelerator Conf., IPAC2015, Richmond, VA, USA

The RaDIATE collaboration (Radiation Damage In Accelerator Target Environments) was founded in 2012 to bring together the high-energy accelerator target and nuclear materials communities to address the challenging issue of radiation damage effects in beam-intercepting materials. Success of current and future high intensity accelerator target facilities requires a fundamental understanding of these effects including measurement of materials property data. Toward this goal, the RaDIATE collaboration organized and carried out a materials irradiation run at the Brookhaven Linac Isotope Producer facility (BLIP). The experiment utilized a 181 MeV proton beam to irradiate several capsules, each containing many candidate material samples for various accelerator components. Materials included various grades/alloys of beryllium, graphite, silicon, iridium, titanium, TZM, CuCrZr, and aluminum. Attainable peak damage from an 8-week irradiation run ranges from 0.03 DPA (Be) to 7 DPA (Ir). Helium production is expected to range from 5 appm/DPA (Ir) to 3,000 appm/DPA (Be). The motivation, experimental parameters, as well as the post-irradiation examination plans of this experiment are described., Proceedings of the 8th Int. Particle Accelerator Conf., IPAC2017, Copenhagen, Denmark

The preponderance of matter over antimatter in the early Universe, the dynamics of the supernova bursts that produced the heavy elements necessary for life and whether protons eventually decay --- these mysteries at the forefront of particle physics and astrophysics are key to understanding the early evolution of our Universe, its current state and its eventual fate. The Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment (LBNE) represents an extensively developed plan for a world-class experiment dedicated to addressing these questions. LBNE is conceived around three central components: (1) a new, high-intensity neutrino source generated from a megawatt-class proton accelerator at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, (2) a near neutrino detector just downstream of the source, and (3) a massive liquid argon time-projection chamber deployed as a far detector deep underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility. This facility, located at the site of the former Homestake Mine in Lead, South Dakota, is approximately 1,300 km from the neutrino source at Fermilab -- a distance (baseline) that delivers optimal sensitivity to neutrino charge-parity symmetry violation and mass ordering effects. This ambitious yet cost-effective design incorporates scalability and flexibility and can accommodate a variety of upgrades and contributions. With its exceptional combination of experimental configuration, technical capabilities, and potential for transformative discoveries, LBNE promises to be a vital facility for the field of particle physics worldwide, providing physicists from around the globe with opportunities to collaborate in a twenty to thirty year program of exciting science. In this document we provide a comprehensive overview of LBNE's scientific objectives, its place in the landscape of neutrino physics worldwide, the technologies it will incorporate and the capabilities it will possess., Major update of previous version. This is the reference document for LBNE science program and current status. Chapters 1, 3, and 9 provide a comprehensive overview of LBNE's scientific objectives, its place in the landscape of neutrino physics worldwide, the technologies it will incorporate and the capabilities it will possess. 288 pages, 116 figures