We present an experiment to measure the spin-correlation coefficients for double-polarized deuteron-fusion in the energy range of 10–100 keV to determine the quintet suppression factor. The ...experiment setup and the future upgrade plans are described. The possible gain for future thermonuclear fusion reactors is discussed as well.
The central detector in the MuSun experiment is a pad-plane time projection ionization chamber that operates without gas amplification in deuterium at 31 K; it is used to measure the rate of the muon ...capture process \(\mu^- + d \rightarrow n + n + \nu_\mu\). A new charge-sensitive preamplifier, operated at 140 K, has been developed for this detector. It achieved a resolution of 4.5 keV(D\(_2\)) or 120 \(e^-\) RMS with zero detector capacitance at 1.1 \(\mu\)s integration time in laboratory tests. In the experimental environment, the electronic resolution is 10 keV(D\(_2\)) or 250 \(e^-\) RMS at a 0.5 \(\mu\)s integration time. The excellent energy resolution of this amplifier has enabled discrimination between signals from muon-catalyzed fusion and muon capture on chemical impurities, which will precisely determine systematic corrections due to these processes. It is also expected to improve the muon tracking and determination of the stopping location.
The
μLan experiment at the Paul Scherrer Institute will measure the lifetime of the positive muon with a precision of 1 ppm, giving a value for the Fermi coupling constant
G
F
at the level of 0.5 ...ppm. Meanwhile, by measuring the observed lifetime of the negative muon in pure hydrogen, the
μCap experiment will determine the rate of muon capture, giving the proton's pseudoscalar coupling
g
p
to 7%. This coupling can be calculated precisely from heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory and therefore permits a test of QCD's chiral symmetry.
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