The differential cross sections for low-energy muonic hydrogen atom scattering from hydrogenic molecules are directly expressed by the corresponding amplitudes for muonic atom scattering from hydrogen-isotope nuclei. The energy and angular dependence of these three-body amplitudes is thus taken naturally into account in scattering from molecules, without involving any pseudopotentials. Effects of the internal motion of nuclei inside the target molecules are included for every initial rotational-vibrational state. These effects are very significant as the considered three-body amplitudes often vary strongly within the energy interval $\lesssim{}0.1$ eV. The differential cross sections, calculated using the presented method, have been successfully used for planning and interpreting many experiments in low-energy muon physics. Studies of $μ^{-}$ nuclear capture in $pμ$ and the measurement of the Lamb shift in $pμ$ atoms created in H$_2$ gaseous targets are recent examples.
The differential cross sections for low-energy muonic hydrogen atom scattering in solid molecular H$_2$, D$_2$ and T$_2$ targets under low pressure have been calculated for various temperatures. The polycrystalline fcc and hcp structure of the solid hydrogenic targets are considered. The Bragg and phonon scattering processes are described using the Debye model of a solid. The calculated cross sections are used for Monte Carlo simulations of the muonic atom slowing down in these targets. They have been successfully applied for a description of the production of the muonic atom beams in the mult…
The differential cross sections for low-energy muonic hydrogen atom scattering in liquid hydrogenic targets have been calculated in the incoherent approximation using the Van Hove response function. A simple model of liquids and the available experimental parameters have been employed for a description of the diffusive and vibrational modes in these targets. At collision energies below about 10 meV, the obtained cross sections are very different from the analogous cross sections for scattering in hydrogenic gases.
The complete relativistic $O(α^2)$ nuclear structure correction to the energy levels of ordinary (electronic) and muonic hydrogen-like atoms is investigated. The elastic part of the nuclear structure correction is derived analytically. The resulting formula is valid for an arbitrary hydrogenic system and is much simpler than analogous expressions previously reported in the literature. The analytical result is verified by high-precision numerical calculations. The inelastic $O(α^2)$ nuclear structure correction is derived for the electronic and muonic deuterium atoms. The correction comes from …
A model for description of nonresonant formation of the muonic molecules in collisions of the muonic hydrogen atoms with the hydrogenic molecules has been developed with taking into account the internal motion of all nuclei. It has been shown that such a motion leads to a significant smearing of the calculated energy-dependent formation rates at low collision energies. In particular, this effect is strong in the $ddμ$ and $dtμ$ formation. An appreciable isotopic effect in the case of nonresonant $ddμ$ formation in $dμ$ collisions with the molecules D$_2$ and HD has been found. All these effect…
We have completed the calculation of pure-recoil corrections of order $(Z α)^6$ to Coulombic bound states of two spin-1/2 fermions without approximation in the particle masses. Our result applies to systems of arbitrary mass ratio such as muonium and positronium, and also hydrogen and muonic hydrogen (with the neglect of proton structure effects). We have shown how the two-loop master integrals that occur in the relativistic region can be computed in analytic form, and suggest that the same method can be applied to the three-loop integrals that would be present in a calculation of order $(Z α)…
Recently we have proposed an effective Hartree-Fock (EHF) theory for the electrons of the muonic molecules that is formally equivalent to the HF theory within the context of the Nuclear-Electronic Orbital theory [Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 20, 4466 (2018)]. In the present report we extend the muon-specific effective electronic structure theory beyond the EHF level by introducing the effective second order Muller-Plesset perturbation theory (EMP2) and the effective coupled-cluster theory at single and double excitation levels (ECCSD) as well as an improved version including perturbative triple exc…
The non-resonant formation of $ddμ$ molecules in the loosely bound state in collisions of non-thermalized $dμ$ atoms with deuterium molecules D$_2$ has been considered. The process of such a type is possible only for collision energies exceeded the ionization potential of D$_2$. The calculated rates of $ddμ$ formation in the above-threshold energy region are about one order of magnitude higher than obtained earlier. The role of epithermal non-resonant $μ$-molecule formation for the kinetics of $μ$CF processes in D$_2$ gas was studied. It was shown that the non-resonant $ddμ$ formation by $dμ$ …
This paper continues the analysis of bound quantum systems started in (T. Yarman, A.L. Kholmetskii and O.V. Missevitch. Going from classical to quantum description of bound charged particles. Part 1: basic concepts and assertions), based on a novel approach, involving the requirement of energy-momentum conservation for the bound electromagnetic (EM) field, when the EM radiation is forbidden. It has been shown that the modified expression for the energy levels of hydrogenic atoms within such a pure bound field theory (PBFT) provides the same gross and fine structure of energy levels, like in th…
The diffusion radius of the 1S muonic hydrogen atoms in gaseous H_2 targets with various deuterium admixtures has been determined for temperatures T=30 and 300 K. The Monte Carlo calculations have been performed using the partial differential crosssections for $pμ$ and $dμ$ atom scattering from the molecules H$_2$, HD and D$_2$. These cross sections include hyperfine transitions in the muonic atoms, the muon exchange between the nuclei $p$ and $d$, and rotational-vibrational transitions in the target molecules. The Monte Carlo results have been used for preparing the time-projection chamber fo…
Studies of muonic hydrogen atoms and molecules have been performed traditionally in bulk targets of gas, liquid or solid. At TRIUMF, Canada's meson facility, we have developed a new type of target system using multilayer thin films of solid hydrogen, which provides a beam of muonic hydrogen atoms in vacuum. Using the time-of-flight of the muonic atoms, the energy-dependent information of muonic reactions are obtained in direct manner. We discuss some unique measurements enabled by the new technique, with emphasis on processes relevant to muon catalyzed fusion.
The ground bound states in the five-body muonic ions $a b μe_2$ (or $(a b μe_2)^{-}$), where $(a, b) = (p, d, t)$, are considered for the first time. As follows from accurate numerical computations of these five-body ions they are similar to the negatively charged hydrogen ion H$^{-}$ with a three-particle central quasi-nucleus $a b μ$ (or $(a b μ)^{+}$). These five-body ions play some role in the muon-catalyzed fusion of nuclear reaction in liquid deuterium and/or deuterium-tritium mixtures. We also discuss the bound states in the six-body $a b c μe_2$ quasi-molecules, where $(a, b, c) = (p, …
The kinetic energy distribution of ground state muonic hydrogen atoms mu-p(1S) is determined from time-of-flight spectra measured at 4, 16, and 64 hPa H2 room-temperature gas. A 0.9 keV-component is discovered and attributed to radiationless deexcitation of long-lived mu-p(2S) atoms in collisions with H2 molecules. The analysis reveals a relative population of about 1%, and a pressure-dependent lifetime (e.g. (30.4 +21.4 -9.7) ns at 64 hPa) of the long-lived mu-p(2S) population, equivalent to a 2S-quench rate in mu-p(2S) + H2 collisions of (4.4 +2.1 -1.8) 10^11 s^-1 at liquid hydrogen density.
An effective set of the Hartree-Fock (HF) equations are derived for electrons of the muonic systems, i.e., molecules containing a positively charged muon, conceiving the muon as a quantum oscillator, which are completely equivalent to the usual two-component HF equations used to derive stationary states of the muonic molecules. In these effective equations, a non-Coulombic potential is added to the orthodox coulomb and exchange potential energy terms, which describes the interaction of the muon and the electrons effectively and is optimized during the self-consistent field cycles. While in the…
Radiative deexcitation (RD) of the metastable 2S state of muonic protium and deuterium atoms has been observed. In muonic protium, we improve the precision on lifetime and population (formation probability) values for the short-lived μp(2S) component, and give an upper limit for RD of long-lived μp(2S) atoms. In muonic deuterium at 1 hPa, 3.1 +-0.3 % of all stopped muons form μd(2S) atoms. The short-lived 2S component has a population of 1.35 +0.57 -0.33 % and a lifetime of τ_short(μd) = 138 +32 -34 ns. We see evidence for RD of long-lived μd(2S) with a lifetime of τ_long(μd) = 1.15 +0.75 -0.5…
A set of effective electronic-only Kohn-Sham (EKS) equations are derived for the muonic molecules (containing a positively charged muon), which are completely equivalent to the coupled electronic-muonic Kohn-Sham equations derived previously within the framework of the Nuclear-Electronic Orbital density functional theory (NEO-DFT). The EKS equations contain effective non-coulombic external potentials depending on parameters describing muon vibration, which are optimized during the solution of the EKS equations making muon KS orbital reproducible. It is demonstrated that the EKS equations are d…
The present status and recent developments in the theory of light hydrogenic atoms, electronic and muonic, are extensively reviewed. The discussion is based on the quantum field theoretical approach to loosely bound composite systems. The basics of the quantum field theoretical approach, which provide the framework needed for a systematic derivation of all higher order corrections to the energy levels, are briefly discussed. The main physical ideas behind the derivation of all binding, recoil, radiative, radiative-recoil, and nonelectromagnetic spin-dependent and spin-independent corrections t…
Recent progress in laser and x-ray spectroscopy of muonic atoms offers promising long-term possibilities at the intersection of atomic, nuclear and particle physics. In muonic hydrogen, laser spectroscopy measurements will determine the ground-state hyperfine splitting (HFS) and additionally improve the Lamb shift by a factor of 5. Precision spectroscopy with cryogenic microcalorimeters has the potential to significantly improve the charge radii of the light nuclei in the $Z=3-8$ range. Complementary progress in precision should be achieved on the theory of nucleon- and nuclear-structure effec…
Using a Hartree-Fock mesh method and a configuration interaction approach based on a generalized Gaussian basis set we investigate the behaviour of the exchange and correlation energies of small atoms and molecules, namely th e helium and lithium atom as well as the hydrogen molecule, in the presence of a magnetic field covering the regime B=0-100a.u. In general the importance of the exchange energy to the binding properties of at oms or molecules increases strongly with increasing field strength. This is due to the spin-flip transitions and in particular due to the contributions of the tightl…
We continue the analysis of quantum two-particle bound systems we have started in (Kholmetskii, A.L., Missevitch, O.V. and Yarman, T. Phys. Scr., 82 (2010), 045301), where we re-postulated the Dirac equation for the bound electron in an external EM field based on the requirement of total momentum conservation, when its EM radiation is prohibited. It has been shown that the modified expression for the energy levels of hydrogenic atoms within such a pure bound field theory (PBFT) provides the same gross and fine structure of energy levels like the standard theory. Now we apply the PBFT to the an…
