Production of muonium in vacuum

Thesis/Dissertation · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1982

OSTI ID:6114478

Bolton, P R

Experiments relating to the discovery of the muonium atom in a vacuum at energies above the thermal range are described. Muonium is a purely leptonic atom of fundamental interest. Tests of quantum electrodynamics and muon-electron symmetry are facilitated by producing muonium in a vacuum. This search for muonium in a vacuum is described in two parts; an initial search for thermal muonium using the Larmor precession technique and a subsequent search employing a beam-foil method sensitive to energies less than 30 KeV. The low momentum positive muon beam at the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility was used. With the search described in part one, muons were incident on an array of thin foils. In the target region muons and any muonium precess at different rates in a transverse magnetic field. Muonium precession is evidenced by a more rapidly oscillating asymmetry in the decay positron distribution. In all cases only free muon asymmetries were observed with an experimental limit of 5% for the fraction of incident muons forming muonium. Since this spin precession method is sensitive only to polarized, thermal muonium of it was necessary to perform a less restrictive search for muonium in a vacuum. More energetic muonium in vacuum was discovered with the beam-foil method. Primary muons were incident on the following single foil targets: Be, C, Al, Cu, Ag, and Au. The neutral muonium component of the secondary beam emerging from the foil was isolated with a magnetic field deflecting charged components. A Nal(T1) crystal was used downstream to record the Michel energy spectrum of positrons associated with muon decay.

• Research Organization: Yale Univ., New Haven, CT (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6114478
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640303* -- Atomic
Molecular & Chemical Physics-- Positronium
Muonium
& Muonic & Mesic Atoms & Molecules
74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
ALKALINE EARTH METALS
ALUMINIUM
ANTILEPTONS
ANTIMATTER
ANTIPARTICLES
BEAMS
BERYLLIUM
CARBON
COPPER
DECAY
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ELEMENTS
ENERGY RANGE
ENERGY SPECTRA
FERMIONS
FOILS
GOLD
KEV RANGE
KEV RANGE 01-10
KEV RANGE 10-100
LARMOR PRECESSION
LEPTON BEAMS
LEPTONS
MAGNETIC FIELDS
METALS
MUON BEAMS
MUONIUM
NONMETALS
PARTICLE BEAMS
PARTICLE PRODUCTION
POSITRONS
PRECESSION
SILVER
SPECTRA
TRANSITION ELEMENTS