One-Loop Corrections to Radiative Muon Decay

One-loop QED corrections to the differential width of radiative muon decay are considered. Results can be used to analyze high statistics data of modern and future experiments.Comment: 16 pp, 3 PostScript figure

Radiative corrections to pion Compton scattering

We calculate the one-photon loop radiative corrections to charged pion Compton scattering, $\pi^- \gamma \to \pi^- \gamma$. Ultraviolet and infrared divergencies are both treated in dimensional regularization. Analytical expressions for the ${\cal O}(\alpha)$ corrections to the invariant Compton scattering amplitudes, $A(s,u)$ and $B(s,u)$, are presented for 11 classes of contributing one-loop diagrams. Infrared finiteness of the virtual radiative corrections is achieved (in the standard way) by including soft photon radiation below an energy threshold $\lambda$, and its relation to the experimental detection threshold is discussed. We find that the radiative corrections are maximal in backward directions, reaching e.g. -2.4% for a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=4m_\pi$ and $\lambda=5$MeV. Furthermore, we extend our calculation of the radiative corrections by including the leading pion structure effect (at low energies) in form of its electric and magnetic polarizability difference, $\alpha_\pi - \beta_\pi \simeq 6\cdot 10^{-4}$fm$^3$. We find that this structure effect does not change the relative size and angular dependence of the radiative corrections to pion Compton scattering. Our results are particularly relevant for analyzing the COMPASS experiment at CERN which aims at measuring the pion electric and magnetic polarizabilities with high statistics using the Primakoff effect.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figure

Data acquisition system for the MuLan muon lifetime experiment

We describe the data acquisition system for the MuLan muon lifetime experiment at Paul Scherrer Institute. The system was designed to record muon decays at rates up to 1 MHz and acquire data at rates up to 60 MB/sec. The system employed a parallel network of dual-processor machines and repeating acquisition cycles of deadtime-free time segments in order to reach the design goals. The system incorporated a versatile scheme for control and diagnostics and a custom web interface for monitoring experimental conditions.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Nuclear Instruments and Methods

The WITCH experiment: Acquiring the first recoil ion spectrum

The standard model of the electroweak interaction describes beta-decay in the well-known V-A form. Nevertheless, the most general Hamiltonian of a beta-decay includes also other possible interaction types, e.g. scalar (S) and tensor (T) contributions, which are not fully ruled out yet experimentally. The WITCH experiment aims to study a possible admixture of these exotic interaction types in nuclear beta-decay by a precise measurement of the shape of the recoil ion energy spectrum. The experimental set-up couples a double Penning trap system and a retardation spectrometer. The set-up is installed in ISOLDE/CERN and was recently shown to be fully operational. The current status of the experiment is presented together with the data acquired during the 2006 campaign, showing the first recoil ion energy spectrum obtained. The data taking procedure and corresponding data acquisition system are described in more detail. Several further technical improvements are briefly reviewed.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, conference proceedings EMIS 2007 (http://emis2007.ganil.fr), published also in NIM B: doi:10.1016/j.nimb.2008.05.15