Highly polarized muonic helium produced by collisions with optically pumped Rb

Thesis/Dissertation · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1993

OSTI ID:7270469

Barton, A S

Highly polarized muonic helium has been formed by stopping unpolarized negative muons in a mixture of unpolarized gaseous He and laser optically pumped Rb vapor. The stopped muons form muonic He ions which are neutralized and polarized by collisions with Rb. Average polarizations for [sup 3]He and [sup 4]He of 26.8 [+-] 2.3% and 44.2 [+-] 3.5% were achieved, representing a tenfold increase over previous methods. Fitting the time dependent polarization to equations for spin exchange and polarized dissociative charge exchange derived through the use of spherical basis tensors, cross sections for both interactions were computed. The cross section for spin exchange was found to be [sigma][sub SE] = (1.36 [+-] 0.17 [+-] 0.25) x 10[sup [minus]14]cm[sup [minus]2], while the cross section for dissociative charge exchange was measured as [sigma][sub CE] = (4.47 [+-] 0.67 [+-] 0.82) x 10[sup [minus]14]cm[sup 2]. Highly polarized muonic He is valuable for measurements of the induced pseudoscalar coupling g[sub P] in nuclear muon capture.

• Research Organization: Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)
• OSTI ID: 7270469
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

664300 -- Atomic & Molecular Physics-- Collision Phenomena-- (1992-)
664500* -- Special Atoms & Molecules-- (1992-)
74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
ALKALI METALS
ALPHA REACTIONS
ATOM COLLISIONS
ATOM-ATOM COLLISIONS
ATOMS
CHARGED-PARTICLE REACTIONS
COLLISIONS
ELEMENTS
HELIUM 3 REACTIONS
METALS
MUONIC ATOMS
NUCLEAR REACTIONS
OPTICAL PUMPING
POLARIZATION
PUMPING
RUBIDIUM