[en] These lectures discuss the results obtained by the CERN-Dortmond-Heidelberg-Saclay (CDHS) collaboration in the first five months of operation of the CERN 400 GeV super-proton-synchrotron (SPS). The CDHS apparatus is described and results for charged-current reactions presented with reference to the question of the existence of the high-y anomaly, multimuon production, results on neutral current reactions and on the search for the production of wrong-charge-sign muons. (Auth.)

[en] The polarization of the M2 muon beam at the CERN SPS is studied at 220/200, 260/240, 300/280 GeV/c π⁺/μ⁺ momenta by using a lead-glass telescope and a simple trigger system to measure the positron spectrum from muon decay. A direct measurement of the polarization difference between the 220/200 GeV/c beam (forward decays, average polarization approximately -0.8) and the 300/200 GeV/c beam (backward decays, average polarization approximately +0.1) is also presented. (author)

[en] Geant4 is an object oriented toolkit created for the simulation of High-Energy Physics detectors. Geant4 allows an accurate modeling of radiation sources and detector devices, with easy configuration and friendly interface and at the same time with great accuracy in the simulation of physical processes. While most Monte Carlo codes do not allow the simulation of the transport and boundary characteristics for optical photons transport generated by scintillating crystal, Geant4 allows the simulation of the optical photons. In this paper we present an application of the Geant4 program for simulating optical photons in SPECT cameras. We aim to study the light transport within scintillators, photomultiplier tubes and coupling devices. To this end, we simulated a detector based on a scintillator, coupled to a photomultiplier tube through a glass window. We compared simulated results with experimental data and theoretical models, in order to verify the good matching with our simulations. We simulated a pencil beam of 140 keV photons impinging the crystal at different locations. For each condition, we calculated the value of the Pulse Height Centroid and the spread of the charge distribution, as read out by the anode array of the photomultiplier. Finally, the spatial and the energy resolutions of the camera have been estimated by simulated data. In all cases, we found that simulations agree very well with experimental data.

[en] Neutrinos are abundantly produced in the LHC. Flavour composition and energy reach of the neutrino flux from proton–proton collisions depend on the pseudorapidity η. At large η, energies can exceed the TeV, with a sizeable contribution of the τ flavour. A dedicated detector could intercept this intense neutrino flux in the forward direction, and measure the interaction cross section on nucleons in the unexplored energy range from a few hundred GeV to a few TeV. The high energies of neutrinos result in a larger νN interaction cross section, and the detector size can be relatively small. Machine backgrounds vary rapidly while moving along and away from the beam line. Four locations were considered as hosts for a neutrino detector: the CMS quadrupole region (25 m from CMS Interaction Point (IP)), UJ53 and UJ57 (90 and 120 m from CMS IP), RR53 and RR57 (240 m from CMS IP), TI18 (480 m from ATLAS IP). The potential sites are studied on the basis of (a) expectations for neutrino interaction rates, flavour composition and energy spectrum, (b) predicted backgrounds and in situ measurements, performed with a nuclear emulsion detector and radiation monitors. TI18 emerges as the most favourable location. Already with 150 fb⁻¹ expected in LHC Run3, a small detector in TI18 could measure, for the first time and with good precision, the high-energy νN cross section for all neutrino flavours. (paper)

[en] We discuss an experiment to investigate neutrino physics at the LHC, with emphasis on tau flavour. As described in our previous paper Beni et al (2019 J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phys. 46 115008), the detector can be installed in the decommissioned TI18 tunnel, ≈480 m downstream the ATLAS cavern, after the first bending dipoles of the LHC arc. The detector intercepts the intense neutrino flux, generated by the LHC beams colliding in IP1, at large pseudorapidity η, where neutrino energies can exceed a TeV. This paper focuses on exploring the neutrino pseudorapity versus energy phase space available in TI18 in order to optimize the detector location and acceptance for neutrinos originating at the pp interaction point, in contrast to neutrinos from pion and kaon decays. The studies are based on the comparison of simulated pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}=$ 13 TeV: PYTHIA events of heavy quark (c and b) production, compared to DPMJET minimum bias events (including charm) with produced particles traced through realistic LHC optics with FLUKA. Our studies favour a configuration where the detector is positioned off the beam axis, slightly above the ideal prolongation of the LHC beam from the straight section, covering 7.4 < η < 9.2. In this configuration, the flux at high energies (0.5–1.5 TeV and beyond) is found to be dominated by neutrinos originating directly from IP1, mostly from charm decays, of which ≈50% are electron neutrinos and ≈5% are tau neutrinos. The contribution of pion and kaon decays to the muon neutrino flux is found small at those high energies. With 150 fb⁻¹ of delivered LHC luminosity in Run 3 the experiment can record a few thousand very high energy neutrino charged current (CC) interactions and over 50 tau neutrino CC events. These events provide useful information in view of a high statistics experiment at HL–LHC. The electron and muon neutrino samples can extend the knowledge of the charm PDF to a new region of x, which is dominated by theory uncertainties. The tau neutrino sample can provide first experience on reconstruction of tau neutrino events in a very boosted regime. (paper)