Tuesday, November 6, 2012

1211.0960 (V. Tishchenko et al.)

Detailed Report of the MuLan Measurement of the Positive Muon Lifetime
and Determination of the Fermi Constant
   [PDF]

V. Tishchenko, S. Battu, R. M. Carey, D. B. Chitwood, J. Crnkovic, P. T. Debevec, S. Dhamija, W. Earle, A. Gafarov, K. Giovanetti, T. P. Gorringe, F. E. Gray, Z. Hartwig, D. W. Hertzog, B. Johnson, P. Kammel, B. Kiburg, S. Kizilgul, J. Kunkle, B. Lauss, I. Logashenko, K. R. Lynch, R. McNabb, J. P. Miller, F. Mulhauser, C. J. G. Onderwater, Q. Peng, J. Phillips, S. Rath, B. L. Roberts, D. M. Webber, P. Winter, B. Wolfe
We present a detailed report of the method, setup, analysis and results of a precision measurement of the positive muon lifetime. The experiment was conducted at the Paul Scherrer Institute using a time-structured, nearly 100%-polarized, surface muon beam and a segmented, fast-timing, plastic scintillator array. The measurement employed two target arrangements; a magnetized ferromagnetic target with a ~4 kG internal magnetic field and a crystal quartz target in a 130 G external magnetic field. Approximately 1.6 x 10^{12} positrons were accumulated and together the data yield a muon lifetime of tau_{mu}(MuLan) = 2196980.3(2.2) ps (1.0 ppm), thirty times more precise than previous generations of lifetime experiments. The lifetime measurement yields the most accurate value of the Fermi constant G_F (MuLan) = 1.1663787(6) x 10^{-5} GeV^{-2} (0.5 ppm). It also enables new precision studies of weak interactions via lifetime measurements of muonic atoms.
View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1211.0960

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