Measurement of helium-3 and deuterium stopping power ratio for negative muons

Abstract

The measurement method and results measuring of the stopping power ratio of helium-3 and deuterium atoms for muons slowed down in the D/${}^3$He mixture are presented. Measurements were performed at four values of pure ${}^3$He gas target densities, ${\varphi }_{He}=0.0337,0.0355,0.0359,0.0363$ (normalized to the liquid hydrogen density) and at a density 0.0585 of the D/${}^3$He mixture. The experiment was carried out at PSI muon beam $\mu$E4 with the momentum P$\mu =34.0$ MeV/c. The measured value of the mean stopping ratio $S_{{}^{3}He/D}$ is $1.66\pm 0.04$. This value can also be interpreted as the value of mean reduced ratio of probabilities for muon capture by helium-3 and deuterium atoms.

7 pages, 6 figures