2025/03/03 by S. Gninenko, Gninenko, Sergei N., Sergey Kuleshov +4
Engineering · #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph) #Muon and positron interactions and applications
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2503.01393
openalex publication_date 2025/03/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/12 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We suggest a new mechanism for the formation of true muonium (T M), the QED (μ+ μ-) bound state, due to the Coulomb interaction of muons from μ+ μ- pairs generated in the Drell-Yan reaction of protons off nuclei of a thin foil target. The T M atoms produced in the 3S1 long-lived triplet state (oT M) could escape from the foil to vacuum followed by their decay into e+e- pairs. Observation of e+e- events with a displaced vertex, and an invariant mass and decay time consistent with the mass and lifetime of the oT M is used as a signature of the discovery of T M. We present estimates of the T M yield and briefly discuss an experiment which could lead to such a discovery.