Physics:Muon capture

Short description: Capture of a negative muon by a proton

Feynman diagram of the muon capture. A negatively charged muon is captured by a proton. The proton is transformed into a neutron and a muon-neutrino is emitted. The interaction is mediated by a W-boson.

Muon capture is the capture of a negative muon by a proton, usually resulting in production of a neutron and a neutrino, and sometimes a gamma photon.

Muon capture by heavy nuclei often leads to emission of particles; most often neutrons, but charged particles can be emitted as well.

Ordinary muon capture (OMC) involves capture of a negative muon from the atomic orbital without emission of a gamma photon:

μ⁻ + p⁺ → ν_μ + n⁰

Radiative muon capture (RMC) is a radiative version of OMC, where a gamma photon is emitted:

μ⁻ + p⁺ → ν_μ + n⁰ + γ

Theoretical motivation for the study of muon capture on the proton is its connection to the proton's induced pseudoscalar form factor g_p.

Practical application - Nuclear waste disposal

Muon capture is being investigated for practical application in radioactive waste disposal, for example in the artificial transmutation of large quantities of long-lived radioactive waste that have been produced globally by fission reactors. Radioactive waste can be transmuted to stable isotopes following irradiation by an incident muon (μ⁻) beam from a compact proton accelerator source.

References

• T. Gorringe and H.W. Fearing (2004). "Induced pseudoscalar coupling of the proton weak interaction". Rev. Mod. Phys. 76 (1): 31–91. doi:10.1103/RevModPhys.76.31. Bibcode: 2003RvMP...76...31G. 
• V.A. Andreev (2007). "Measurement of the Rate of Muon Capture in Hydrogen Gas and Determination of the Proton's Pseudoscalar Coupling g_P". Physical Review Letters 99 (3): 032002. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.032002. PMID 17678281. Bibcode: 2007PhRvL..99c2002A. 
• Nagamine, Kanetada (2016) "Nuclear Waste Disposal Method and its apparatus using muon-nuclear-absorption". (WO2016143144A1) Espacenet (Patent database).