Testing Parity with Atomic Radiative Capture of $\mu^-$

TL;DR

This paper proposes using high-intensity muon beams and specific target materials to detect parity-violating interactions through atomic radiative capture, enabling direct tests of fundamental symmetries.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to test parity violation in muon-nucleus interactions via atomic radiative capture and calculates its feasibility with current facilities.

Findings

Atomic radiative capture can dominate muonic atom cascades.

The single photon $2S_{1/2}$-$1S_{1/2}$ transition is detectable.

The method enables direct parity violation measurement.

Abstract

The next generation of "intensity frontier" facilities will bring a significant increase in the intensity of sub-relativistic beams of $\mu^-$. We show that the use of these beams in combination with thin targets of $Z\sim 30$ elements opens up the possibility of testing parity-violating interactions of muons with nuclei via direct radiative capture of muons into atomic 2S orbitals. Since atomic capture preserves longitudinal muon polarization, the measurement of the gamma ray angular asymmetry in the single photon $2S_{1/2}$-$1S_{1/2}$ transition will offer a direct test of parity. We calculate the probability of atomic radiative capture taking into account the finite size of the nucleus to show that this process can dominate over the usual muonic atom cascade, and that the as yet unobserved single photon $2S_{1/2}$-$1S_{1/2}$ transition in muonic atoms can be detected in this way using current muon facilities.