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Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 1642–1645 (2000)

Resonant Formation of dμt Molecules in Deuterium: An Atomic Beam Measurement of Muon Catalyzed dt Fusion

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M. C. Fujiwara1,2,*, A. Adamczak3, J. M. Bailey4, G. A. Beer5, J. L. Beveridge2, M. P. Faifman6, T. M. Huber7, P. Kammel8, S. K. Kim9, P. E. Knowles5,†, A. R. Kunselman10, M. Maier5, V. E. Markushin11, G. M. Marshall2, C. J. Martoff12, G. R. Mason5, F. Mulhauser2,‡, A. Olin2,5, C. Petitjean11, T. A. Porcelli5,§, J. Wozniak13, and J. Zmeskal14 (TRIUMF Muonic Hydrogen Collaboration)
1Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6T 2A6
2TRIUMF, Vancouver, Canada V6T 2A3
3Institute of Nuclear Physics, 31-342 Krakow, Poland
4Chester Technology, Chester CH4 7QH, England
5Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada V8W 2Y2
6Russian Research Center, Kurchatov Institute, Moscow 123182, Russia
7Department of Physics, Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, Minnesota 56082
8Department of Physics and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720
9Department of Physics, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju City 560-756, Korea
10Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming 82071-3905
11Paul Scherrer Institute, CH-5232 Villigen, Switzerland
12Department of Physics, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122
13Faculty of Physics and Nuclear Techniques, University of Mining and Metallurgy, 30-059 Krakow, Poland
14Institute for Medium Energy Physics, Austrian Academy of Sciences, A-1090 Vienna, Austria

Received 29 February 2000; revised 18 May 2000; published in the issue dated 21 August 2000

See accompanying Physics Focus

Resonant formation of dμt molecules in collisions of muonic tritium ( μt) on D2 was investigated using a beam of μt atoms, demonstrating a new direct approach in muon catalyzed fusion studies. Strong epithermal resonances in dμt formation were directly revealed for the first time. From the time-of-flight analysis of 2036±116 dt fusion events, a formation rate consistent with 0.73±(0.16)meas±(0.09)model times the theoretical prediction was obtained. For the largest peak at a resonance energy of 0.423±0.037eV, this corresponds to a rate of (7.1±1.8)×109s-1, more than an order of magnitude larger than those at low energies.

© 2000 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.85.1642
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.85.1642
PACS:
36.10.Dr, 21.45.+v, 25.60.Pj

*Present address: Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Tokyo, Hongo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan. Email address: Makoto.Fujiwara@cern.ch

†Present address: Institute of Physics, University of Fribourg, CH-1700 Fribourg, Switzerland.

‡

§Present address: Department of Physics, University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, BC, Canada.

 
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