Muon reactivation in muon-catalyzed d-t fusion from accurate p-He+ stripping and excitation cross sections.

Abstract

Accurate cross sections are obtained for the excitation and stripping of a muon from {alpha}{mu} in collisions with hydrogen atoms. This is done by calculating the excitation, ionization, and charge-transfer cross sections for the {ital p}-He{sup +} collision and scaling the results. An impact-parameter coupled-state method with a basis set of up to 51 Sturmian wave functions is used to obtain cross sections at center-of-mass energies ranging from 20 to 600 keV. Along with Stark, Auger, radiative, and stopping rates these cross sections are used to calculate the probability of stripping a muon from {alpha}{mu} by numerically solving a set of coupled differential equations that describe the kinetics of {alpha}{mu} as it travels through a mixture of D{sub 2} and T{sub 2}. An effort has been made to minimize the uncertainty in the value of the stripping probability resulting in error bars of 9% and 11% at densities of 1.2 and 0.05 times liquid-hydrogen density, respectively. X-ray yields belonging to {ital K} and {ital L} series transitions among {alpha}{mu} states have also been computed. The present results are compared with recent theoretical and experimental data.