THE MERIT(nTOF-11) HIGH INTENSITY LIQUID MERCURY TARGET EXPERIMENT AT THE CERN PS

The MERIT(nTOF-11) experiment is a proof-of-principle test of a target system for a high power proton beam to be used as front-end for a neutrino factory or a muon collider. The experiment took data in autumn 2007 with the fast-extracted beam from the CERN Proton Synchrotron (PS) to a maximum intensity of 30 x 10{sup 12} per pulse. The target system, based on a free mercury jet, is capable of intercepting a 4-MW proton beam inside a 15-T magnetic field required to capture the low energy secondary pions as the source for intense muon beams. Particle detectors installed around the target setup measure the secondary particle flux out of the target and can probe cavitation effects in the mercury jet when excited by an intense proton beam. Preliminary results of the data analysis will be presented here.