Muon capture

Muon capture is the capture of a negative muon by a proton, usually resulting in production of a neutron and a neutrino, and sometimes a gamma photon.

Except for the flavor of neutrino, it has exactly the same result as electron capture, except that the great mass-energy of the muon makes it allowed for all nuclei and there is so much excess energy that a nucleus can disintegrate; for heavy nuclei this leads to emission of nuclear particles; most often neutrons, but charged particles can be emitted as well.

Ordinary muon capture (OMC) involves capture of a negative muon from the atomic orbital without emission of a gamma photon:

μ−
 + p+
 → νμ + n0

Radiative muon capture (RMC) is a radiative version of OMC, where a gamma photon is emitted:

μ−
 + p+
 → νμ + n0
 + γ

Theoretical motivation for the study of muon capture on the proton is its connection to the proton's induced pseudoscalar form factor gp.

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