Open AccessMeasurement of the Positive Muon Lifetime and Determination of the Fermi Constant to Part-per-Million Precision
Author(s) -
D.M. Webber,
V. G. Tishchenko,
QiuHe Peng,
S. Battu,
Robert M. Carey,
D. B. Chitwood,
J. Crnkovic,
P. T. Debevec,
S. Dhamija,
W. Earle,
А. Р. Гафаров,
K. L. Giovanetti,
T. P. Gorringe,
F. Gray,
Zachary Hartwig,
D. W. Hertzog,
B. Johnson,
P. Kammel,
B. Kiburg,
S. Kizilgul,
J. Kunkle,
B. Lauss,
I.B. Logashenko,
Kevin R. Lynch,
R. McNabb,
J. Miller,
F. Mulhauser,
C. J. G. Onderwater,
J. Phillips,
Shubhalaxmi Rath,
B. L. Roberts,
P. Winter,
B. A. Wolfe
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
physical review letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.688
H-Index - 673
eISSN - 1079-7114
pISSN - 0031-9007
DOI - 10.1103/physrevlett.106.041803
Subject(s) - muon , physics , nuclear physics , pseudoscalar , fermi gamma ray space telescope , proton , scintillator , muon capture , particle physics , constant (computer programming) , coupling constant , detector , meson , optics , condensed matter physics , programming language , computer science
We report a measurement of the positive muon lifetime to a precision of 1.0 ppm; it is the most precise particle lifetime ever measured. The experiment used a time-structured, low-energy muon beam and a segmented plastic scintillator array to record more than 2 X 10(12) decays. Two different stopping target configurations were employed in independent data-taking periods. The combined results give tau(mu)+(MuLan) = 2 196 980.3(2.2) ps, more than 15 times as precise as any previous experiment. The muon lifetime gives the most precise value for the Fermi constant: G(F)(MuLan) = 1.166 378 8(7) X 10(-5) GeV(-2) (0.6 ppm). It is also used to extract the mu(-)p singlet capture rate, which determines the proton's weak induced pseudoscalar coupling g(P)