Deexcitation of muonic molecules by internal conversion.

Abstract

Stabilization of the resonantly formed muonic molecular ion (td\ensuremath{\mu}) depends on the transition from the excited J=1 state to some lower-lying state in competition with decay through the entrance channel. The most important process leading to this transition is internal conversion (Auger effect), in which the excitation energy of the muonic system is carried away by an orbital electron. Using variational wave functions similar to those previously reported [A. K. Bhatia and R. J. Drachman, Phys. Rev. A 30, 2138 (1984)], we have now computed the matrix elements responsible for the transitions. For simplicity, we have assumed that the muonic ion is the nucleus of a hydrogenic atom and have calculated lifetimes and branching ratios for various transitions among the J=0, 1, and 2 states. The J=2 binding energy (${E}_{2}$=101.59 eV) is the first reported variational result for this state. We find that the excited J=0 state is populated several hundred times as often as the ground state.