Muon Capture as a Probe for Nuclear Structure

Abstract

The process of muon capture in complex nuclei μ^- + N _i → ν_μ + N _f where N _i and N _f refer, respectively, to initial and final nuclei has so far been used as a means of studying the fundamental weak interaction. In particular considerable work has been done both theoretically and experimentally to check the “universal fermi interaction” hypothesis, and to determine the pseudoscalar coupling constant which becomes important in the μ-capture due to a large momentum transfer involved in the process. However, except in very special cases, the nuclear structure complications introduce a large uncertainty in the analysis and hence make it very difficult to learn anything meaningful about the fundamental process. For the study of the fundamental weak interaction, therefore, one ought to resort to a process entirely free of nuclear structure, in particular μ^- + p → ν_μ + n. Many laboratories are actively engaged in this work. This is significant not only for weak interaction physics, but also for nuclear structure physics. One topic on just how the clarification of the weak process would help us in studying nuclear structure will be presented in this paper.