https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-020-00777-y
Regular Article
Study of nuclear properties with muonic atoms
1
Paul Scherrer Institut, Villigen, Switzerland
2
Institut für Teilchen- und Astrophysik, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
Received:
7
April
2020
Accepted:
14
September
2020
Published online:
6
October
2020
Muons are a fascinating probe to study nuclear properties. Muonic atoms can easily be formed by stopping negative muons inside a material. The muon is subsequently captured by the nucleus and, due to its much higher mass compared to the electron, orbits the nucleus at very small distances. During this atomic capture process, the muon emits characteristic X-rays during its cascade down to the ground state. The energies of these X-rays reveal the muonic energy level scheme, from which properties like the nuclear charge radius or its quadrupole moment can be extracted. While almost all stable elements have been examined using muons, probing highly radioactive atoms has so far not been possible. The muX experiment has developed a technique based on transfer reaction inside a high-pressure hydrogen/deuterium gas cell to examine targets available only in microgram quantities.
© The Author(s) 2020
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