Laser spectroscopy of light muonic atoms and the nuclear charge radii

The energy levels of hydrogen-like atomic systems are shifted slightly by the complex structure of the nucleus, in particular by the finite size of the nucleus. These energy shifts are vastly magnified in muonic atoms and ions, i.e. the hydrogen-like systems formed by a negative muon and a nucleus. By measuring the 2S-2P energy splitting in muonic hydrogen, muonic deuterium and muonic helium, we have been able to deduce the p, d, ^33He and ^44He nuclear charge radii to an unprecedented accuracy. These radii provide benchmarks for hadron and nuclear theories, lead to precision tests of bound-state QED in regular atoms and to a better determination of the Rydberg constant.

How Li diffusion in spinel Li[Ni1/2Mn3/2]O4 is seen with μ ±SR

The diffusive behavior in a spinel-type Li+ ion battery material, Li[Ni1/2Mn3/2]O4, has been studied with positive and negative muon spin rotation and relaxation (μ ±SR) measurements in the temperature range between 200 and 400 K using a powder sample. The implanted μ + locates at an interstitial site near O2− ion so as to form a O–H like bond, while the implanted μ − is mainly captured by an oxygen nucleus, resulting in the formation of muonic oxygen. This means that local magnetic environments in Li[Ni1/2Mn3/2]O4 were investigated from the two different sites in the lattice, i.e., one is an interstitial site for μ +SR and the other is an oxygen site for μ −SR. Since both μ +SR and μ −SR detected an increase in the fluctuation rate of a nuclear magnetic field for temperatures above 200 K, the origin of this increase is clearly confirmed as Li diffusion. Assuming a random walk process with the hopping of thermally activated Li+ between a regular Li site and the nearest neighboring vacant octahedral sites, a self-diffusion coefficient of Li+ was found to range above 10−11 cm2/s at temperatures above 250 K with an activation energy of about 0.06 eV.

Status of the Mu2e experiment at Fermilab

The Mu2e experiment aims to improve, by four orders of magnitude, current sensitivity in the search for the charged-lepton flavor violating (cLFV) neutrino-less conversion of a negative muon into an electron. The conversion process will be identified by a distinctive signature of a mono-energetic electron with energy slightly below the muon rest mass. In the Standard Model this process has a negligible rate. However, in many Beyond the Standard Model scenarios its rate is within the reach of Mu2e sensitivity. In this paper, we explain the Mu2e design guidelines and summarize the status of the experiment.

Searching for muon to electron conversion: The Mu2e experiment at Fermilab

The Mu2e experiment will measure the charged-lepton flavor violating (CLFV) neutrino-less conversion of a negative muon into an electron in the field of a nucleus. Mu2e will improve the previous measurement by four orders of magnitude, reaching a 90% C.L. limit of 8\times10^{-17}8×10−17 on the conversion rate. The experiment will reach mass scales of nearly 10^4104 TeV, far beyond the direct reach of colliders. The experiment is sensitive to a wide range of new physics, complementing and extending other CLFV searches. Mu2e is under design and construction at the Muon Campus of Fermilab; we expect to start taking physics data in 2022 with 3 years of running to achieve our target sensitivity.