Muonic atom deexcitation via formation of metastable molecular states in light of experimental verification

• In a recent experiment performed at PSI, a peak in the time-of-flight distribution of pmu(1s) atoms could be identified with decay of ppmu* molecular ions situated below the 2s threshold, providing 900 eV of kinetic energy to the pmu atom. This finding may be interpreted in terms of the side path model which suggests that metastable muonic molecules may form with high probability in resonant collisions between muonic hydrogen in the 2s state and hydrogen molecules, e.g., pmu(2s)H-2-->[(ppmu*)(vJ)(pq) - pee(])v(K) --> [(ppmu*)(v'J')(p'q') - pe](+) + e(-). The Coulombic decay of the Auger stabilised ppmu* molecular ion then leads to the formation of highly energetic pmu(1s) atoms. In the present paper calculations of resonant formation rates in pure hydrogen are presented and compared to the quenching rate of pmu(2s) atoms measured at low hydrogen density.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Fysik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Physical Sciences (hsv//eng)

Keyword

metastable muonic molecule

muon deexcitation

catalyzed fusion

dt-mu

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)