https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2008-00798-3
Muon capture on the proton and deuteron
Department of Physics, Regis University, 3333 Regis Blvd., Denver, CO 80221, USA
Corresponding author: fgray@regis.edu
By measuring the lifetime of the negative muon in pure protium (
),
the MuCap experiment determines the rate of muon capture on the proton,
from which the proton's pseudoscalar coupling gp may be inferred.
A precision of 15% for gp has been published; this is a step along the way
to a goal of 7%. This coupling can be calculated precisely from heavy baryon
chiral perturbation theory and therefore permits a test of QCD's chiral
symmetry. Meanwhile, the MuSun experiment is in its final design stage; it
will measure the rate of muon capture on the deuteron using a similar
technique. This process can be related through pionless effective field
theory and chiral perturbation theory to other two-nucleon reactions of
astrophysical interest, including proton-proton fusion and deuteron breakup.
© EDP Sciences, Springer-Verlag, 2008
