POMPOMs: Cost-efficient polarity sensors for the MICE muon beamline

Abstract

The cooling effect in MICE (Muon Ionisation Cooling Experiment) will be studied with both positive and negative muons, reversing the electrical input to the magnets by physically swapping over the power leads. Ensuring the actual operating polarity of the beamline is correctly recorded is a manual step and at risk of error or omission. We have deployed a simple system for monitoring the operating polarity of the two bending magnets by placing in each dipole bore a Honeywell LOHET-II Hall-effect sensor that operates past saturation at nominal field strengths, and thus return one of two well-defined voltages corresponding to the two possible polarities of the magnet. The environment in the experimental hall is monitored by an AKCP securityProbe 5E system integrated into our EPICS-based controls and monitoring system. We read out the beamline polarity sensors using a voltmeter module, and translate the output voltage into a polarity (or alarm) state within EPICS whence it can be accessed by the operators and stored in the output datastream. Initial tests of the LOHET-II sensors indicate they will still be able to indicate beamline polarity after radiation doses of 900 Gy (Co60).