Precision measurement of muon capture by proton in gaseous hydrogen.
In 1997 our collaboration proposed a new experiment at
PSI aimed at high
precision measurement of the μp- capture rate (Λc).
This rate is very sensitive to the weak form factors
of the nucleon, in particular to the
induced pseudoscalar coupling constant, gP.
Its determination will constitute a rigorous test
of modern effective field theories of QCD.
Our method is based on extremely precise measurement of the muon lifetime in the μ-p system (10ppm) in comparison with that of the free μ+.
During the previous years, a novel time projection chamber (TPC) operating in 10 bar ultra pure and deuterium depleted hydrogen gas (protium) was developed.
In March 2001 the detailed technical proposal of our final setup was presented and received approval from PSI.
As of now the final hydrogen chamber system has been constructed and is presently under conditioning.
In 2004, we foresee a high statistics production runs with full setup.
Publications