CAPTURE OF K$sup -$ MESONS FROM HIGH S ORBITALS IN HELIUM

Journal Article · Mon Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 1960 · PhyS. Rev. Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.5.112· OSTI ID:4168564

Day, T B; Snow, G A

The processes occurring in and after the stopping of mesons (K/sup -/) in liquid He/sup 4/ are studied in onder to find out which atomic orbital the meson will be captured from after stopping. After the capture by a He atom, the remaining electron will be kicked out via the Auger process, and the state to which the meson must fall in order to release the electron ionization energy has n es sufficiert t 27 and an average radius of es sufficiert t 0.4 a/sub el/, which means that the resulting (K/sup -/, alpha )/sup +/ atom will look like a proton to the surrounding He atoms. The atomic and molecular processes in which (K/sup -/, alpha )/sup +/ can participate are examined with the assumption that (K/sup -/, alpha )/sup +/ feels the molecular potential in the collision with a nearby He atom, enabling the Stark effect to be derived. For the high n values considered (20 to 30), the S state capture via the molecular Stark effect will be 10 to 50 times faster than the external Auger process, whereas if the meson has lower n values es sufficiert t 10, the dominant reaction will be capture from P states via the Stark effect. It is concluded that S-state capture will predominate. (D.L.C.)

• Research Organization: Univ. of Maryland, College Park
• NSA Number: NSA-14-020844
• OSTI ID: 4168564
• Journal Information: PhyS. Rev. Letters, Journal Name: PhyS. Rev. Letters Vol. Vol: 5
• Country of Publication: Country unknown/Code not available
• Language: English

Related Subjects

ATOMIC MODELS
ATOMS
AUGER EFFECT
CAPTURE
ELECTRIC FIELDS
ELECTRONS
EXCITATION
HELIUM 4
IONIZATION
KAONS
KAONS-MINUS
LIQUIDS
MOLECULES
ORBITS
PHYSICS
SPECTRA
STARK EFFECT