Feasibility study of True Muonium discovery with CERN-SPS H4 positron beam

TL;DR

This study demonstrates the potential to observe true muonium, a heavy electromagnetic bound state, at CERN SPS using a positron beam, with a feasible experimental setup and significant discovery prospects.

Contribution

It presents a novel feasibility analysis for detecting true muonium at CERN SPS, detailing experimental conditions and expected signals for the first time.

Findings

True muonium can be produced via $e^+e^- o TM$ at CERN SPS.

Detection of ortho-TM is feasible within three months of data collection.

Significant discovery potential at the CERN SPS H4A beam line.

Abstract

True muonium ($\mu^+\mu^-$) is one of the heaviest and smallest electromagnetic bound states not containing hadrons, and has never been observed so far. In this work it is shown that the spin-1 TM state (ortho-TM) can be observed at a discovery level of significance in three months at the CERN SPS North-Area H4A beam line, using 43.7 GeV secondary positrons. In this way, by impinging the positrons on multiple thin low-Z targets, ortho-TM, which decays predominantly to $e^+e^-$, can be produced from $e^+e^- \to TM$ interactions on resonance ($\sqrt{s} \sim 2m_{\mu}$).