Measurement of the positive muon lifetime and determination of the Fermi constant to part-per-million precision

D. M. Webber, V. Tishchenko, Q. Peng, 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. KizilgulJ. Kunkle, B. Lauss, I. Logashenko, K. R. Lynch, R. McNabb, J. P. Miller, F. Mulhauser, C. J.G. Onderwater, J. Phillips, S. Rath, B. L. Roberts, P. Winter, B. Wolfe

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104 Scopus citations

Abstract

We report a measurement of the positive muon lifetime to a precision of 1.0 ppm; it is the most precise particle lifetime ever measured. The experiment used a time-structured, low-energy muon beam and a segmented plastic scintillator array to record more than 2×1012 decays. Two different stopping target configurations were employed in independent data-taking periods. The combined results give τμ+(MuLan)=2196980.3(2.2)ps, more than 15 times as precise as any previous experiment. The muon lifetime gives the most precise value for the Fermi constant: GF(MuLan)=1.1663788(7) ×10-5GeV-2 (0.6 ppm). It is also used to extract the μ-p singlet capture rate, which determines the proton's weak induced pseudoscalar coupling gP.

Original languageEnglish
Article number041803
JournalPhysical Review Letters
Volume106
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 25 2011

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Physics and Astronomy

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