Abstract

SHIP is a new general purpose fixed target facility, whose Technical Proposal has been submitted to the CERN SPS Committee in 2015. The 400 GeV proton beam extracted from the SPS will be dumped on a heavy target achieving 2 10²⁰ proton-target collisions in 5 years. A dedicated detector, based on a long vacuum tank followed by a spectrometer and particle identification detectors, will probe a variety of models with light long-lived exotic particles with masses below O(10) GeV/c². The main focus will be the physics of the so-called Hidden Portals, i.e. search for Dark Photons, Light scalars and pseudo-scalars, and Heavy Neutrinos. The sensitivity to Heavy Neutrinos will allow for the first time to probe, in the mass range between the kaon and the charm meson, a coupling range where baryogenesis and active neutrino masses could be explained. Direct detection of light and long-lived exotic particles could be performed in an unexplored range. Another dedicated detector, using technologies developed for OPERA, will allow the study of SM neutrino cross-sections and angular distributions. ν_τ deep inelastic scattering cross sections will be measured with 1000 times better statistics than currently, allowing to extract the F₄ and F₅ structure functions, never measured so far. Moreover, ν_τ's will be distinguished from ν_τbar's, thus providing the first observation of the ν_τbar.