Epithermal effects in muon-catalyzed [ital dt] fusion: Comparison of experimental data with theoretical calculations

Journal Article · Sat Apr 01 00:00:00 EST 1995 · Physical Review A; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.51.2881· OSTI ID:6543246

Jeitler, M; Breunlich, W H; Cargnelli, M; Kammel, P; Marton, J; Naegele, N; Pawlek, P; Scrinzi, A; Werner, J; Zmeskal, J ^[1]; Bossy, H; Daniel, H; Hartmann, F J; Schmidt, G; von Egidy, T ^[2]; Petitjean, C ^[3]; Bistirlich, J; Crowe, K M; Justice, M; Kurck, J ^[4] ; Sherman, R H ^[5]; Neumann, W ^[6]; Faifman, M P ^[7]

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1. Institut fuer Mittelenerglephysik, Austrian Academy of Sciences, A-1090 Wien (Austria)
2. Physik Department, Technical University of Munich, D-85747 Garching (Germany)
3. Paul Scherrer Institute, CH-5232 Villigen (Switzerland)
4. University of California and Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720 (United States)
5. Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States)
6. Eidgenoessische Technische Hochschule, CH-8049 Zuerich (Switzerland)
7. RRC Kurchatov Institute, Moscow 123182 (Russian Federation)

Epithermal effects in muonic molecular formation were observed during experiments in a low-density deuterium-tritium gas target carried out at the Paul Scherrer Institute. The high molecular formation rate of epithermal'' (not yet thermalized) muonic tritium atoms was reflected by a strong fast component in the fusion neutron time spectra followed by a smaller steady-state'' component where molecular formation occurs mostly from thermalized ( cold'') [ital t][mu] atoms. Further experimental evidence for high epithermal [ital dt][mu] molecular formation rates has been derived from measurements in triple H-D-T mixtures. First, theoretical calculations predicted strong resonances at high [ital t][mu] kinetic energies and showed qualitative agreement with the observed experimental data, but yielded molecular formation rates that differed substantially from the observed values. At present, refined calculations are being carried out which may improve the agreement with experiment. Further experiments are being planned to clarify open questions.

• OSTI ID: 6543246
• Journal Information: Physical Review A; (United States), Vol. 50:4; ISSN 1050-2947
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
MUON-CATALYZED FUSION
KINETICS
DEUTERIUM
EXCITED STATES
MUONIC MOLECULES
NEUTRON SPECTRA
TRITIUM
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
ENERGY LEVELS
HYDROGEN ISOTOPES
ISOTOPES
LIGHT NUCLEI
MESIC MOLECULES
MOLECULES
NUCLEAR REACTIONS
NUCLEI
NUCLEOSYNTHESIS
ODD-EVEN NUCLEI
ODD-ODD NUCLEI
RADIOISOTOPES
SPECTRA
STABLE ISOTOPES
SYNTHESIS
THERMONUCLEAR REACTIONS
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
700360* - Fusion Reactions- (1992-)