Abstract
Background: The rate λppμ characterizes the formation of ppμ molecules in collisions of muonic pμ atoms with hydrogen. In measurements of the basic weak muon capture reaction on the proton to determine the pseudoscalar coupling gP, capture occurs from both atomic and molecular states. Thus knowledge of λppμ is required for a correct interpretation of these experiments.
Purpose: Recently the MuCap experiment has measured the capture rate ΛS from the singlet pμ atom, employing a low-density active target to suppress ppμ formation [V. Andreev et al. (MuCap Collaboration), Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 012504 (2013)]. Nevertheless, given the unprecedented precision of this experiment, the existing experimental knowledge in λppμ had to be improved.
Method: The MuCap experiment derived the weak capture rate from the muon disappearance rate in ultrapure hydrogen. By doping the hydrogen with 20 ppm of argon, a competing process to ppμ formation was introduced, which allowed the extraction of λppμ from the observed time distribution of decay electrons.
Results: The ppμ formation rate was measured as λppμ=(2.01±0.06stat±0.03sys)×106s−1. This result updates the λppμ value used in the abovementioned MuCap publication.
Conclusions: The 2.5× higher precision compared to earlier experiments, and the fact that the measurement was performed under nearly identical conditions as the main data taking, reduces the uncertainty induced by λppμ to a minor contribution to the overall uncertainty of ΛS and gP, as determined in the MuCap experiment. Our final value for λppμ shifts ΛS and gP by less than one-tenth of their respective uncertainties compared to our results published earlier.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-2015
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.91.055502
Funding Information
This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation; the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, Office of Nuclear Physics, under Awards No. DE-FG02-97ER41020 and No. DE-FG02-00ER41129; the CRDF; the Paul Scherrer Institute; the Russian Academy of Sciences; and the Grant of the President of the Russian Federation (Grant No. NSH-3057.2006.2). This work used the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE), which is supported by National Science Foundation Grant No. ACI-1053575.
Repository Citation
Andreev, V. A.; Banks, T. I.; Carey, R. M.; Case, T. A.; Clayton, S. M.; Crowe, K. M.; Deutsch, J.; Egger, J.; Freedman, S. J.; Ganzha, V. A.; Gorringe, Tim; Gray, F. E.; Hertzog, D. W.; Hildebrandt, M.; Kammel, P.; Kiburg, B.; Knaack, S.; Kravtsov, P. A.; Krivshich, A. G.; Lauss, B.; Lynch, K. R.; Maev, E. M.; Maev, O. E.; Mulhauser, F.; Petitjean, C.; Petrov, G. E.; Prieels, R.; Schapkin, G. N.; Semenchuk, G. G.; Soroka, M. A.; Tishchenko, Vladimir; Vasilyev, A. A.; Vorobyov, A. A.; Vznuzdaev, M. E.; and Winter, P., "Measurement of the Formation Rate of Muonic Hydrogen Molecules" (2015). Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications. 299.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/physastron_facpub/299
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Notes/Citation Information
Published in Physical Review C: Nuclear Physics, v. 91, no. 5, article 055502, p. 1-11.
©2015 American Physical Society
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