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Virginia Tech

Radiative muon capture on nuclear targets

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

A large acceptance pair spectrometer to detect photons from the radiative muon capture (RMC) process was built. The spectrometer was used to measure the RMC branching ratio for AI, Si, Ca, Mo, Sn and Pb. Two recent theoretical models were used to extract the RMC branching ratio in Ca. The experin1ental result is in good agreement with the world average value, but yields a value for the pseudoscalar coupling constant, gp, which is lower than the Goldberger-Treiman PCAC prediction. In the absence of a theoretical model to predict the R11C rates for Al and 5i, only the branching ratios for these targets are reported. For Mo, 5n, and Pb, the branching ratios found were consistent with the Fermi gas n10del for which a nill contribution from the pseudoscalar coupling was assumed. Good agreement was found between the experimental results and what is predicted fron1 using the simple, closure approximation. The RMC world data indicates a close connection between the branching ratios and Q, where Q is the ratio between the difference and the sum of neutrons and protons for any element, (Q = ~Z~~J). It is suggested that future experiments study different isotopes to isolate the Z and the Q dependence of the R11C rates. This experiment also served as a test ground for the RMC experin1ent in liquid hydrogen which is now in progress at TRIUMF.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Ph. D.
Level thesis:degree_level
doctoral
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Physics
Department dc:contributor.department
Physics
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
1991

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Serna, Alvaro
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Blecher, Marvin
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Ficenec, John R.
  • Gotow, K.
  • Chang, Lay Nam
  • Zia, Royce K. P.

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright
Language dc:language.iso
en

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
etd-09202005-091008
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/39425

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
related terms
citation

Serna, Alvaro. Radiative muon capture on nuclear targets. doctoral thesis, Virginia Tech, 1991. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/39425