A novel measurement of the muon capture rate in liquid hydrogen by the lifetime technique

Abstract

The muon nuclear capture rate by protons has been measured by comparing the lifetime τ μ − of negative muons stopped in liquid hydrogen with the lifetime τ μ + of positive muons. We get τ μ − = 2194.903 ± 0.066 ns and τ μ + = 2197.182 ± 0.121 ns. Taking into account also the previous determinations of τ μ + , we present the updated determination of the muon lifetime, and correspondingly we obtain for the capture rate of muons from the pμp molecular ions the value λ c = 460 ± 20 s −1 .