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

Measurement of the Rate of Muon Capture in Hydrogen Gas and Determination of the Proton's Pseudoscalar Coupling gPg_P

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 $\mu^-$ disappearance rate in hydrogen and the world average for the $\mu^+$ 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 $\mu p$ atom is measured to be $\Lambda_S=725.0 \pm 17.4 s^{-1}$, from which the induced pseudoscalar coupling of the nucleon, $g_P(q^2=-0.88 m_\mu^2)=7.3 \pm 1.1$, is extracted. This result is consistent with theoretical predictions for $g_P$ that are based on the approximate chiral symmetry of QCD.Comment: submitted to Phys.Rev.Let

Study of aging properties of a wire chamber operating with high-pressure hydrogen

Abstract The project for a precision measurement of the mp-capture rate (mCAP experiment) is based on an application of a multi-wire proportional chamber (MWPC) operating in ultra-pure hydrogen at 10 bar pressure. A special test setup was constructed at PNPI to investigate the MWPC performance under the expected experimental conditions. The aging studies of the MWPCs were performed with intense irradiation from an a-source ð 241 AmÞ and a b-source ð 90 SrÞ: After 45 days of continuous irradiation by a-particles no changes in the currents, in the signal shapes, and in the counting rates were observed. It was demonstrated that the MWPCs can operate without degradation at least up to accumulated charges of 0:1 C=cm wire. These irradiation conditions are much more severe than in the real experiment. During the study of the MWPC we have observed an appearance of short duration signals with amplitudes an order of magnitude larger than those of normal signals from the a-particles. The number of such signals (''streamers'') strongly depend on HV. We shall continue these tests in the future with the goal of obtaining more detailed information about aging properties of MWPCs operating with high-pressure hydrogen.

Study of aging properties of a wire chamber operating with high-pressure hydrogen

The project for a precision measurement of the µp-capture rate (µCAP experiment) is based on an application of a multi-wire proportional chamber (MWPC) operating in ultra-pure hydrogen at 10 bar pressure. A special test setup was constructed at PNPI to investigate the MWPC performance under the expected experimental conditions. The aging studies of the MWPCs were performed with intense irradiation from an alpha-source (Am 241 ) and a beta-source (Sr 90 ). After 45 days of continuous irradiation by alpha-particles no changes in the currents, in the signal shapes, and in the counting rates were observed. It was demonstrated that the MWPCs can operate without degradation at least up to accumulated charges of 0.1 C/cm wire. These irradiation conditions are much more severe than in the real experiment. During the study of the MWPC we have observed an appearance of short duration signals with amplitudes an order of magnitude larger than those of normal signals from the alpha-particles. The number of such signals ("streamers") strongly depend on HV. We shall continue these tests in the future with the goal of obtaining more detailed information about aging properties of MWPCs operating with high-pressure hydrogen

Measurement of the formation rate of muonic hydrogen molecules

Background: The rate λppμ characterizes the formation of ppμ molecules in collisions of muonic pμ atoms with hydrogen. In measurements of the basic weak muon capture reaction on the proton to determine the pseudoscalar coupling gP, capture occurs from both atomic and molecular states. Thus knowledge of λppμ is required for a correct interpretation of these experiments. Purpose: Recently the MuCap experiment has measured the capture rate ΛS from the singlet pμ atom, employing a low-density active target to suppress ppμ formation [V. Andreev (MuCap Collaboration), Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 012504 (2013)]PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.110.012504. Nevertheless, given the unprecedented precision of this experiment, the existing experimental knowledge in λppμ had to be improved. Method: The MuCap experiment derived the weak capture rate from the muon disappearance rate in ultrapure hydrogen. By doping the hydrogen with 20 ppm of argon, a competing process to ppμ formation was introduced, which allowed the extraction of λppμ from the observed time distribution of decay electrons. Results: The ppμ formation rate was measured as λppμ=(2.01±0.06stat±0.03sys)×106s-1. This result updates the λppμ value used in the abovementioned MuCap publication. Conclusions: The 2.5× higher precision compared to earlier experiments, and the fact that the measurement was performed under nearly identical conditions as the main data taking, reduces the uncertainty induced by λppμ to a minor contribution to the overall uncertainty of ΛS and gP, as determined in the MuCap experiment. Our final value for λppμ shifts ΛS and gP by less than one-tenth of their respective uncertainties compared to our results published earlie