Design for detecting recycling muon after muon-catalyzed fusion reaction in solid hydrogen isotope target

Okutsu, Kenichi*; Yamashita, Takuma*; Kino, Yasushi*; Nakashima, Ryota*; Miyashita, Konan*; Yasuda, Kazuhiro*; Okada, Shinji*; Sato, Motoyasu*; Oka, Toshitaka; Kawamura, Naritoshi*; et al.

Fusion Engineering and Design, 170, p.112712_1 - 112712_4, 2021/09

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fusengdes.2021.112712

A muonic molecule which consists of two hydrogen isotope nuclei (deuteron (d) or tritium (t)) and a muon decays immediately via nuclear fusion and the muon will be released as a recycling muon, and start to find another hydrogen isotope nucleus. The reaction cycle continues until the muon ends up its lifetime of 2.2 s. Since the muon does not participate in the nuclear reaction, the reaction is so called a muon catalyzed fusion (CF). The recycling muon has a particular kinetic energy (KE) of the muon molecular orbital when the nuclear reaction occurs. Since the KE is based on the unified atom limit where distance between two nuclei is zero. A precise few-body calculation estimating KE distribution (KED) is also in progress, which could be compared with the experimental results. In the present work, we observed recycling muons after CF reaction.

Dynamical response of transition-edge sensor microcalorimeters to a pulsed charged-particle beam

Okumura, Takuma*; Azuma, Toshiyuki*; Bennet, D. A.*; Caradonna, P.*; Chiu, I.-H.*; Doriese, W. B.*; Durkin, M. S.*; Fowler, J. W.*; Gard, J. D.*; Hashimoto, Tadashi; et al.

IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity, 31(5), p.2101704_1 - 2101704_4, 2021/08

https://doi.org/10.1109/TASC.2021.3067793

A superconducting transition-edge sensor (TES) microcalorimeter is an ideal X-ray detector for experiments at accelerator facilities because of good energy resolution and high efficiency. To study the performance of the TES detector with a high-intensity pulsed charged-particle beam, we measured X-ray spectra with a pulsed muon beam at the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC) in Japan. We found substantial temporal shifts of the X-ray energy correlated with the arrival time of the pulsed muon beam, which was reasonably explained by pulse pileup due to the incidence of energetic particles from the initial pulsed beam.

Deexcitation dynamics of muonic atoms revealed by high-precision spectroscopy of electronic X rays

Okumura, Takuma*; Azuma, Toshiyuki*; Bennet, D. A.*; Caradonna, P.*; Chiu, I. H.*; Doriese, W. B.*; Durkin, M. S.*; Fowler, J. W.*; Gard, J. D.*; Hashimoto, Tadashi; et al.

Physical Review Letters, 127(5), p.053001_1 - 053001_7, 2021/07

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.053001

We observed electronic X rays emitted from muonic iron atoms using a superconducting transition-edge-type sensor microcalorimeter. The energy resolution of 5.2 eV in FWHM allowed us to observe the asymmetric broad profile of the electronic characteristic and X rays together with the hypersatellite X rays around 6 keV. This signature reflects the time-dependent screening of the nuclear charge by the negative muon and the -shell electrons, accompanied by electron side-feeding. Assisted by a simulation, this data clearly reveals the electronic - and -shell hole production and their temporal evolution during the muon cascade process.

New precise measurement of muonium hyperfine structure interval at J-PARC

Ueno, Yasuhiro*; Aoki, Masaharu*; Fukao, Yoshinori*; Higashi, Yoshitaka*; Higuchi, Takashi*; Iinuma, Hiromi*; Ikedo, Yutaka*; Ishida, Katsuhiko*; Ito, Takashi; Iwasaki, Masahiko*; et al.

Hyperfine Interactions, 238(1), p.14_1 - 14_6, 2017/11

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10751-016-1381-7

Time evolution calculation of muon catalyzed fusion by the Runge-Kutta method

Yamashita, Takuma*; Okutsu, Kenichi*; Kino, Yasushi*; Nakashima, Ryota*; Miyashita, Konan*; Yasuda, Kazuhiro*; Okada, Shinji*; Sato, Motoyasu*; Oka, Toshitaka; Kawamura, Naritoshi*; et al.

no journal, , 

A muon () having 207 times larger mass of electron and the same charge as the electron has been known to catalyze a nuclear fusion (CF) between deuteron (d) and triton (t). In this work, we have solved simultaneous reaction rate equations by the 4th-order Runge-Kutta method for the jointed CF cycles in the two layers (H/D and D/T). The T concentration to maximize the intensities of fusion neutrons and muons emitted to the vacuum will be discussed.

Observation of released muon using muonic X-ray in dd-CF experiment at J-PARC MLF

Okutsu, Kenichi*; Kino, Yasushi*; Nakashima, Ryota*; Miyashita, Konan*; Yasuda, Kazuhiro*; Yamashita, Takuma*; Okada, Shinji*; Sato, Motoyasu*; Oka, Toshitaka; Kawamura, Naritoshi*; et al.

no journal, , 

Muon catalized fusion (CF) is expected to be a high-quality muon beam source for undestructive measurement and a monoenergetic neutron source. In this work, we discussed how to observe a kinetic energy distribution of a recycling muon emitted after CF reaction.

Observation of released muon after intramolecular nuclear reaction, 3; Electric field design

Nakashima, Ryota*; Okutsu, Kenichi*; Kino, Yasushi*; Miyashita, Konan*; Yasuda, Kazuhiro*; Yamashita, Takuma*; Okada, Shinji*; Sato, Motoyasu*; Oka, Toshitaka; Kawamura, Naritoshi*; et al.

no journal, , 

The recycling muon emitted after the muon catalized fusion (CF) has a kinetic energy between a few keV to 10 keV. To observed the kinetic energy distribution of the recycling muon, we have to guide and inject muons to Ti foil, and measure the muonic X-ray. In this work, we utilized SIMION code to calculate the electric field and the trajectory of muons from deuteron target to Ti foil.

Particle transport simulation of kinetic energy selection and detection of muon after muon catalyzed fusion reaction

Nakashima, Ryota*; Okutsu, Kenichi*; Kino, Yasushi*; Miyashita, Konan*; Yasuda, Kazuhiro*; Yamashita, Takuma*; Okada, Shinji*; Sato, Motoyasu*; Oka, Toshitaka; Kawamura, Naritoshi*; et al.

no journal, , 

To detect a recycling muon emitted after muon catalyzed fusion reaction, it is necessary to guide the recycling muons from the target to a detector in a low background area. In this work, we simulated the muon transportation using SIMONS and PHITS codes and designed an experimental system.

Background reduction for detection of regenerated muons after muon-catalyzed fusion; Instrument design by numerical simulation

Miyashita, Konan*; Okutsu, Kenichi*; Kino, Yasushi*; Nakashima, Ryota*; Yasuda, Kazuhiro*; Yamashita, Takuma*; Okada, Shinji*; Sato, Motoyasu*; Oka, Toshitaka; Kawamura, Naritoshi*; et al.

no journal, , 

Muon catalyzed fusion (CF) is a cyclic reaction where a negatively charged muon itself acts like a catalyst of nuclear fusion between hydrogen isotopes. In this work, we have designed the shape of the thermal shield to reduce the background noise.

Numerical simulation of muon beam behavior in solid hydrogen

Konishi, Ren*; Okutsu, Kenichi*; Kino, Yasushi*; Sasaki, Kyosuke*; Nakashima, Ryota*; Yamashita, Takuma*; Miyashita, Konan*; Yasuda, Kazuhiro*; Okada, Shinji*; Sato, Motoyasu*; et al.

no journal, , 

Muon catalyzed fusion (CF) is a cyclic reaction where a negatively charged muon itself acts like a catalyst of nuclear fusion between hydrogen isotopes. In this work, we used PHITS code to simulate the behavior of the low-energy muon in a thin layer of the solid hydrogen.