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In the neutrino factory, muons are produced by firing high-energy protons onto a target to produce pions. The pions decay to muons and pass through a capture channel known as the muon front end, before acceleration to 12.6 GeV. The muon front end comprises a variable frequency rf system for longitudinal capture and an ionization cooling channel. In this paper we detail recent improvements in the design of the muon front end.

The SNO+ detector main physics goal is the search for neutrinoless double-beta decay, a rare process which if detected, will prove the Majorana nature of the neutrinos and provide information on the absolute scale of the neutrino absolute mass. Additional physics goals of SNO+ include the study of solar neutrinos, anti-neutrinos from nuclear reactors and the Earth's natural radioactivity as well as Supernovae neutrinos. Located in the SNOLAB underground physics laboratory (Canada), it will re-use the SNO experiment infrastructure with the 12 m diameter spherical volume filled with 780 tons of Te-loaded liquid scintillator. A short phase with the detector completely filled with water has started at the end of 2016. It will be followed by a scintillator phase expected to start at the end of this year. Continual careful monitoring of the detector state such as its hardware configuration, slow control information, data handling and triggers is required to ensure the quality of the data taken. Several automatic checks have been put in place for that purpose. This information serves as input to higher level run selection tools that will ultimately perform a final decision on the goodness of a run for a given physics analysis.

The properties of the neutrino provide a unique window on physics beyond that described by the standard model. The study of subleading effects in neutrino oscillations, and the race to discover CP-invariance violation in the lepton sector, has begun with the recent discovery that θ13>0 . The measured value of θ13 is large, emphasizing the need for a facility at which the systematic uncertainties can be reduced to the percent level. The neutrino factory, in which intense neutrino beams are produced from the decay of muons, has been shown to outperform all realistic alternatives and to be capable of making measurements of the requisite precision. Its unique discovery potential arises from the fact that only at the neutrino factory is it practical to produce high-energy electron (anti)neutrino beams of the required intensity. This paper presents the conceptual design of the neutrino factory accelerator facility developed by the European Commission Framework Programme 7 EUROν Design Study consortium. EUROν coordinated the European contributions to the International Design Study for the Neutrino Factory (the IDS-NF) collaboration. The EUROν baseline accelerator facility will provide 1021 muon decays per year from 12.6 GeV stored muon beams serving a single neutrino detector situated at a source-detector distance of between 1 500 km and 2 500 km. A suite of near detectors will allow definitive neutrino-scattering experiments to be performed.

The observation of neutrino less double-beta decay would show that neutrinos are Majorana particles and provide information on neutrino mass. Attaining sensitivities for neutrino masses in the inverted hierarchy region requires large, tonne scale detectors with extremely low backgrounds, at the level of 10−3 counts keV−1 t−1 y−1 or lower in the region of the signal. The MAJORANA collaboration is constructing the DEMONSTRATOR, an array consisting of 40 kg of p-type point contact germanium detectors, at least half of which will be enriched to 86% in 76Ge. The primary aim is to show the feasibility for a future tonne scale measurement. With a sub-keV energy threshold, the array should also be able to search for light WIMP dark matter. This paper presents a brief update on the status of constructing the DEMONSTRATOR including an electroforming facility that is now operating underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility.

Measurements of the double-differential π ± production cross-section in the range of momentum 100 MeV/c≤p< 800 MeV/c and angle 0.35 rad ≤θ<  2.15 rad in proton–beryllium, proton–aluminium and proton–lead collisions are presented. The data were taken with the HARP detector in the T9 beam line of the CERN PS. The pions were produced by proton beams in a momentum range from 3 GeV/c to 12.9 GeV/c hitting a target with a thickness of 5% of a nuclear interaction length. The tracking and identification of the produced particles was performed using a small-radius cylindrical time projection chamber (TPC) placed inside a solenoidal magnet. Incident particles were identified by an elaborate system of beam detectors. Results are obtained for the double-differential cross-sections d 2 σ/dpdθ at six incident proton beam momenta (3 GeV/c, 5 GeV/c, 8 GeV/c, 8.9 GeV/c (Be only), 12 GeV/c and 12.9 GeV/c (Al only)) and compared to previously available data.

SNO+ is a large liquid scintillator-based experiment located 2 km underground at SNOLAB, Sudbury, Canada. It reuses the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory detector, consisting of a 12 m diameter acrylic vessel which will be filled with about 780 tonnes of ultra-pure liquid scintillator. Designed as a multipurpose neutrino experiment, the primary goal of SNO+ is a search for the neutrinoless double-beta decay (0νββ) of 130Te. In Phase I, the detector will be loaded with 0.3% natural tellurium, corresponding to nearly 800 kg of 130Te, with an expected effective Majorana neutrino mass sensitivity in the region of 55–133 meV, just above the inverted mass hierarchy. Recently, the possibility of deploying up to ten times more natural tellurium has been investigated, which would enable SNO+ to achieve sensitivity deep into the parameter space for the inverted neutrino mass hierarchy in the future. Additionally, SNO+ aims to measure reactor antineutrino oscillations, low energy solar neutrinos, and geoneutrinos, to be sensitive to supernova neutrinos, and to search for exotic physics. A first phase with the detector filled with water will begin soon, with the scintillator phase expected to start after a few months of water data taking. The 0νββ Phase I is foreseen for 2017.

The Majorana Demonstrator is an array of natural and enriched high purity germanium detectors that will search for the neutrinoless double-beta decay of Germanium-76 and perform a search for weakly interacting massive particles with masses below 10 GeV. To reach the background rate goal in the neutrinoless double-beta decay region of interest of 4 counts/keV/t/y, the DEMONSTRATOR will utilize a number of background reduction strategies, including a time-correlated event cut for 68Ge that requires a sub-keV energy threshold. This low energy threshold allows the DEMONSTRATOR to extend its physics reach to include a search for light WIMPs. We will discuss the detector systems and data analysis techniques required to achieve sub-keV thresholds as well as present the projected dark matter sensitivities of the Majorana Demonstrator.

Measurements of the double-differential π± production cross-section in the range of momentum 100 MeV/c≤p< 800 MeV/c and angle 0.35 rad ≤θ< 2.15 rad in proton-beryllium, proton-aluminium and proton-lead collisions are presented. The data were taken with the HARP detector in the T9 beam line of the CERN PS. The pions were produced by proton beams in a momentum range from 3 GeV/c to 12.9 GeV/c hitting a target with a thickness of 5% of a nuclear interaction length. The tracking and identification of the produced particles was performed using a small-radius cylindrical time projection chamber (TPC) placed inside a solenoidal magnet. Incident particles were identified by an elaborate system of beam detectors. Results are obtained for the double-differential cross-sections d2σ/dpdθ at six incident proton beam momenta (3 GeV/c, 5 GeV/c, 8 GeV/c, 8.9 GeV/c (Be only), 12 GeV/c and 12.9 GeV/c (Al only)) and compared to previously available data.

The epic of Semetey, son of the paramount hero Manas, is attested in the northern Kirghiz epic tradition since the mid-nineteenth century. Structural differences between the oldest texts and later versions correspond in time with the transition of the politically fragmented, warring northern Kirghiz chiefs (who were patrons of oral epic poetry) to peaceful submission under the Russian tsar. The transition illuminates comparative aspects of the genre of oral heroic epic poetry. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]