Mu2e: a Muon to Electron Conversion Experiment at Fermilab

We present the status of Mu2e, a proposed experiment to measure the rate of muon to electron conversion in the field of a nucleus. The Mu2e experiment will be hosted by Fermilab at a new muon campus, using a new beamline to deliver protons to the muon generation target. Mu2e will use a series of three solenoids to collect, transport, stop, and analyze the muons produced when the 8 GeV pulsed proton beam from the booster hits the tungsten production target. The 200 nsec wide proton pulse is designed to have a ratio of out-of-time to in-time protons better than 10−10, insuring a measurement time window of approximately 1 microsecond essentially free from beam pion background. A precision, low-mass straw tube tracker will measure electron momenta with a precision of 1/1000, allowing clean separation of the conversion signal from Decay In Orbit electrons, the principle experimental background. Extensive coverage of multi-layer scintillation counters will detect 99.99% of the cosmic muons which could generate fake signals. A crystal calorimeter will provide particle ID to further reduce backgrounds. Detailed simulations show a 3-year run with 7.56×1017 stopped muons will allow a Single Event Sensitivity of 2×10−17, allowing an estimated 90% confidence level sensitivity to Rμe of 6×10−17, a four-orders of magnitude improvement over existing limits. The Mu2e schedule is technically limited, with commissioning beginning in 2019. Mu2e may also run at Project X with 10× higher luminosity using either an aluminum or titanium target after minimal upgrades.