Tertiary particle production and target optimization of the H2 beam line in the SPS North Area

H2 beam line of SPS North Area is a high energy, high resolution and multipurpose particle beam line. It is able to transport secondary hadron and pure electron beams with momenta between 10 and 400 GeV/c to be exploited by several different experiments. In this work, tertiary particle production from a secondary target placed in the line is studied. The introduction of this "filter" target enhances the middle to low momentum hadron (20 - 60 GeV/c) and electron production. In this work, a systematic Monte Carlo simulation study using a GEANT 4 based package, G4beamline, has been performed in order to investigate the tertiary particle production from several different targets. More specifically, Cu, W and polyethylene targets with different thicknesses have been studied. The proton over pi+ ratio is of particular interest, as well as the optimal electron production for several momenta. The present work will act as a reference to be used by the future test-beam users of the line as an indication of the expected particle composition and rates in their experimental setups.