Paper detail

Status of the LBNE Neutrino Beamline

The Long Baseline Neutrino Experiment (LBNE) will utilize a neutrino beamline facility located at Fermilab to carry out a compelling research program in neutrino physics. The facility will aim a beam of neutrinos toward a detector placed at the Homestake Mine in South Dakota. The neutrinos are produced in a three-step process. First, protons from the Main Injector (60-120 GeV) 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 taking into account several factors including the physics goals, the Monte Carlo modeling of the facility, spacial and radiological constraints 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. We discuss here the status of the conceptual design and the associated challenges.