The total muon polarization in Kμ3° meson decay

A spark chamber experiment was performed at the Argonne National Laboratory Zero Gradient Synchrotron to study the polarization of the muon in the decay KL. The results of the test of time reversal in variance and the value obtained for the form factor ratio will be presented. o . . 0 KL mesons, from the 31 neutral beam, decayed in vacuum in a magnetic field. The momenta of the ~ and the ~ + particles were measured by me,ans of foil spark chambers inside the magnet. A kinematic reconstruction of the KLo decay was made for each event. In the 1602 events selected, the muon passed through a thick absorber, came to rest in a set of aluminum range spark chambers, and decayed ( ~ + ~ e + + v + -v). The muon polarization was determined from a study of the angular distribution of the decay positrons. Due to a two-fold ambiguity in the kinematic reconstruction, two methods were used to analyze the data. In the first method, unambiguous events were selected; after correcting for efficiencies, a least~squares analysis was performed on the positron angular distributions. The three orthogonal components of the muon polarization were obtained: where PL, PT' and Pp are, respectivelY9 the components of polarization along the muon momentum, transverse to the decay plane, and perpendicular to the muon (in the decay plane); a is the analyzing parameter of muon decay. In terms of the form factor ratio , the results were In the second method of analysis, a Monte Carlo calculation was made to simulate the decay of the KLO meson followed by the decay of the polarized muon. The kinematical ambiguity was treated such as to enable a direct comparison to.lbe made between the Monte Carlo sample and the actual data. }'The X2 analysis in terms of 5 was performed,with the following results The results of both method& yere consistent and in agreement with time reversal invariance, which predicts. The values obtained for Re ~ imply an energy dependence f6rtheform factors in K~3 decay.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Physics

Year dc:date

2011

Author dc:creator

• Abrams, Robert Jay

Contributors dc:contributor

• Wattenberg, A.

• total muon polarization
• Kμ3° meson decay
• spark chamber experiment
• Argonne national laboratory zero gradient synchrotron
• form factor ratio

Statement dc:rights

• 1966 Robert Jay Abrams

Language dc:language

en

Identifier

61752101

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/23985