High precision study of muon catalyzed fusion in D{sub 2} and HD gas

• Published in: Physics of particles and nuclei Vol. 42; no. 2
• Main Authors: Balin, D. V., Ganzha, V. A., Kozlov, S. M., Maev, E. M., Petrov, G. E., others, and
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 15.03.2011
• Subjects: ACCURACY; BRANCHING RATIO; GASES; HELIUM 3; IONIZATION CHAMBERS; MUON-CATALYZED FUSION; MUONS; PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS; QUANTUM NUMBERS
• ISSN: 1063-7796; 1531-8559

Muon catalyzed dd fusion in D{sub 2} and HD gases in the temperature range from 28 to 350 K was investigated in a series of experiments based on a time-projection ionization chamber operating with pure hydrogen. All main observables in this reaction chain were measured with high absolute precision including the resonant and non-resonant ddμ formation rates, the rate for hyperfine transitions in dμ atoms, the branching ratio of the two charge symmetric fusion channels {sup 3}He + n and t + p and the muon sticking probability. The report presents the final analysis of the data together with a comprehensive comparison with calculations based on recent μCF theories. The energy of the loosely bound ddμ state with quantum numbers J = 1, ν = 1, which is central to the mechanism of resonant molecule formation, is extracted with precision ɛ{sub 11}(fit) = −1.9651(7) eV. in impressive agreement with the latest theoretical results ɛ{sub 11}(theory) = −1.9646 eV.