Design of the LBNE Beamline

Abstract

The Long Baseline Neutrino Experiment (LBNE) will utilize a beamline facility located at Fermilab to carry out a compelling research program in neutrino physics. The facility will aim a wide band beam of neutrinos toward a detector placed at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota, about 1,300 km away. The main elements of the facility are a primary proton beamline and a neutrino beamline. 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 solid target and produce mesons which are sign selected and subsequently focused by a set of magnetic horns into a 204 m long decay pipe where they decay mostly into muons and neutrinos. The parameters of the facility were determined taking into account the physics goals, spacial and radiological constraints, and the experience gained by operating the NuMI facility at Fermilab. The initial beam power is expected to be ~1.2 MW; however, the facility is designed to be upgradeable for 2.3 MW operation. We discuss here the status of the design and the associated challenges.