A muon collider as a Higgs factory

Evidence from the LEP experiments for a Higgs boson at a mass of 115 GeV has recently been presented at CERN. The first muon collider would be the best accelerator at which to study such a Higgs boson. The cross section for direct Higgs production is much larger than the associated production with a Z, which is an advantage for the muon collider. The storage ring would be 350 meters in circumference with a luminosity of 2 /spl times/ 10/sup 31/ cm/sup 2/ s/sup -1/ and an energy spread of 0.0001 [/spl Delta/ E/E]. Feasibility studies for muon storage rings as neutrino factories have been undertaken. In addition, further R&D has been done on emittance exchange needed for longitudinal cooling at a high luminosity muon collider. Using the results of these R&D efforts, a new study to develop a muon collider Higgs factory is underway. The current status of this study will be presented.