62 research outputs found
Measurement of the Positive Muon Lifetime and Determination of the Fermi Constant to Part-per-Million Precision
We report a measurement of the positive muon lifetime to a precision of 1.0
parts per million (ppm); it is the most precise particle lifetime ever
measured. The experiment used a time-structured, low-energy muon beam and a
segmented plastic scintillator array to record more than 2 x 10^{12} decays.
Two different stopping target configurations were employed in independent
data-taking periods. The combined results give tau_{mu^+}(MuLan) =
2196980.3(2.2) ps, more than 15 times as precise as any previous experiment.
The muon lifetime gives the most precise value for the Fermi constant:
G_F(MuLan) = 1.1663788 (7) x 10^-5 GeV^-2 (0.6 ppm). It is also used to extract
the mu^-p singlet capture rate, which determines the proton's weak induced
pseudoscalar coupling g_P.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let
A Circulating Hydrogen Ultra-High Purification System for the MuCap Experiment
The MuCap experiment is a high-precision measurement of the rate for the
basic electroweak process of muon capture, mu- + p -> n + nu . The experimental
approach is based on an active target consisting of a time projection chamber
(TPC) operating with pure hydrogen gas. The hydrogen has to be kept extremely
pure and at a stable pressure. A Circulating Hydrogen Ultrahigh Purification
System was designed at the Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute (PNPI) to
continuously clean the hydrogen from impurities. The system is based on an
adsorption cryopump to stimulate the hydrogen flow and on a cold adsorbent for
the hydrogen cleaning. It was installed at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in
2004 and performed reliably during three experiment runs. During several months
long operating periods the system maintained the hydrogen purity in the
detector on the level of 20 ppb for moisture, which is the main contaminant,
and of better than 7 ppb and 5 ppb for nitrogen and oxygen, respectively. The
pressure inside the TPC was stabilized to within 0.024% of 10 bar at a hydrogen
flow rate of 3 standard liters per minute.Comment: submitted to Nucl. Instr. Methods Phys. Res.
A high-pressure hydrogen time projection chamber for the MuCap experiment
The MuCap experiment at the Paul Scherrer Institute performed a
high-precision measurement of the rate of the basic electroweak process of
nuclear muon capture by the proton, . The
experimental approach was based on the use of a time projection chamber (TPC)
that operated in pure hydrogen gas at a pressure of 10 bar and functioned as an
active muon stopping target. The TPC detected the tracks of individual muon
arrivals in three dimensions, while the trajectories of outgoing decay (Michel)
electrons were measured by two surrounding wire chambers and a plastic
scintillation hodoscope. The muon and electron detectors together enabled a
precise measurement of the atom's lifetime, from which the nuclear muon
capture rate was deduced. The TPC was also used to monitor the purity of the
hydrogen gas by detecting the nuclear recoils that follow muon capture by
elemental impurities. This paper describes the TPC design and performance in
detail.Comment: 15 pages, 13 figures, to be submitted to Eur. Phys. J. A; clarified
section 3.1.2 and made minor stylistic corrections for Eur. Phys. J. A
requirement
Measurement of the Rate of Muon Capture in Hydrogen Gas and Determination of the Proton's Pseudoscalar Coupling
The rate of nuclear muon capture by the proton has been measured using a new
experimental technique based on a time projection chamber operating in
ultra-clean, deuterium-depleted hydrogen gas at 1 MPa pressure. The capture
rate was obtained from the difference between the measured
disappearance rate in hydrogen and the world average for the decay
rate. The target's low gas density of 1% compared to liquid hydrogen is key to
avoiding uncertainties that arise from the formation of muonic molecules. The
capture rate from the hyperfine singlet ground state of the atom is
measured to be , from which the induced
pseudoscalar coupling of the nucleon, , is
extracted. This result is consistent with theoretical predictions for
that are based on the approximate chiral symmetry of QCD.Comment: submitted to Phys.Rev.Let
Measurement of Muon Capture on the Proton to 1% Precision and Determination of the Pseudoscalar Coupling g_P
The MuCap experiment at the Paul Scherrer Institute has measured the rate L_S
of muon capture from the singlet state of the muonic hydrogen atom to a
precision of 1%. A muon beam was stopped in a time projection chamber filled
with 10-bar, ultra-pure hydrogen gas. Cylindrical wire chambers and a segmented
scintillator barrel detected electrons from muon decay. L_S is determined from
the difference between the mu- disappearance rate in hydrogen and the free muon
decay rate. The result is based on the analysis of 1.2 10^10 mu- decays, from
which we extract the capture rate L_S = (714.9 +- 5.4(stat) +- 5.1(syst)) s^-1
and derive the proton's pseudoscalar coupling g_P(q^2_0 = -0.88 m^2_mu) = 8.06
+- 0.55.Comment: Updated figure 1 and small changes in wording to match published
versio
Improved Measurement of the Positive Muon Lifetime and Determination of the Fermi Constant
The mean life of the positive muon has been measured to a precision of 11 ppm
using a low-energy, pulsed muon beam stopped in a ferromagnetic target, which
was surrounded by a scintillator detector array. The result, tau_mu =
2.197013(24) us, is in excellent agreement with the previous world average. The
new world average tau_mu = 2.197019(21) us determines the Fermi constant G_F =
1.166371(6) x 10^-5 GeV^-2 (5 ppm). Additionally, the precision measurement of
the positive muon lifetime is needed to determine the nucleon pseudoscalar
coupling g_P.Comment: As published version (PRL, July 2007
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