A muon beam monitor for the CHNet-MAXI experiment at the RIKEN-RAL laboratory.

The CHNet-MAXI experiment (Muonic Atom X-ray and prompt gamma spectroscopy for Isotopic analysis for cultural heritage) is an INFN Cultural Heritage program funded by Scientific Commission V, aiming at selecting the best figures of merit in the isotopic analysis of lead by means of muonic atom emission. The experiment will be deployed at RIKEN-RAL facility ISIS-STFC (UK), providing a pulsed muon beams with momenta between 15 and 90 MeV/c. The CHNet-MAXI apparatus will be mainly based on a 9 HPGe detectors array and innovative scintillator detectors read-out by SiPMs for the detection of the characteristic X and gamma rays emitted by isotopically enriched targets of Pb 204, 206, 207 and 208, after negative muon irradiation at the RIKEN-RAL beamlines. A muon beam hodoscope will be used as a beam x/y profiler and as a beam intensity monitor. This detector has been designed to provide a few mm spacial resolution, and it is based on 3 mm thick scintillating fibers, each read-out by a single SiPM at one edge. The setup is meant to be portable thanks to desktop HV and innovative open-FPGA DAQ modules. All the phases of the design, assembly, and testing of the CHNet-MAXI hodoscope are illustrated. Finally, first operation tests of this new beam monitor are shown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]