Time Structure of Particle Production in the MERIT High-Power Target Experiment

The MERIT experiment is a proof-of-principle test of a target system for high power proton beam to be used as front-end for a neutrino factory complex or amuon collider. The experiment took data in autumn 2007 with the fast extracted beam from the CERN Proton Synchrotron (PS) to a maximum intensity of about 30 x 10{sup 12} protons per pulse. We report results from the portion of the MERIT experiment in which separated beam pulses were delivered to a free mercury jet target with time intervals between pulses varying from 2 to 700 {micro}s. The analysis is based on the responses of particle detectors placed along side and downstream of the target.