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Experiment No. – 5
Nuclear and Particle Physics Lab (PH – 325)
Introduction:
Muons 𝜇 − are elementary particles just like electrons. Like electrons they are also leptons with spin ½
and do not experience strong force. They are unstable sub-atomic particles. Like all elementary particles,
the muons also have their corresponding anti-particles of opposite charge and equal mass and spin: the
anti-muon (also called a positive muon) denoted by 𝜇 +. Muon has a mass of around 105.7 MeV and is
roughly 200 times heavier than an electron. The interactions that muons experience are very similar to that
of an electron.
As mentioned muon is an unstable particle and decays via weak interaction into an electron (or a positron)
and two neutrinos (actually one neutrino and one anti-neutrino).
𝜇 − → 𝑒 − + 𝜈𝑒 + 𝜈𝜇
𝜇 + → 𝑒 + + 𝜈𝑒 + 𝜈𝜇
The mean life of decay is about 10−6 sec. A more precise value is determined in this experiment.
Theory:
In this experiment to determine the mean lifetime of the muons we need a source that emits/produces the
muons. But to find such a source is practically not possible, so the muons used were the muons produced
naturally when the cosmic rays from outer space enter and interact with the gases in the earth’s
atmosphere.
Detection of Muons:
Muons are detected using a scintillator detector along with the photo-multiplier tube. In scintillator
detector the scintillation material used here is a plastic detector which produces two scintillations, one
when the muon arrives and another when it decays. The energetic muons enter the detector and are
slowed down to rest. And the time difference between the two scintillations produced is measured by an
appropriate (complex) electronic circuit and the output is saved in an ASCII file in the computer. Thus the
rest frame decay time or lifetime of individual muons is measured. The detailed working of a scintillator
detector and photomultiplier tube has already been explained in previous reports (single-channel analyzer
and multi-channel analyzer).
Here DATA field gives the time in 100 ns taken by the 𝑖 𝑡ℎ SAMPLE or muon to decay.
Decay Time # 𝝁 decays Decay Time # 𝝁 decays Decay Time # 𝝁 decays Decay Time # 𝝁 decays
(100 ns) recorded (100 ns) recorded (100 ns) recorded (100 ns) recorded
1 107 44 28 87 10 130 5
2 161 45 25 88 7 131 2
3 199 46 24 89 5 132 7
4 161 47 32 90 9 133 7
5 172 48 21 91 4 134 5
6 148 49 29 92 9 135 4
7 184 50 24 93 9 136 4
8 133 51 30 94 9 137 4
9 147 52 32 95 9 138 5
10 127 53 13 96 3 139 6
11 144 54 15 97 7 140 4
12 115 55 21 98 11 141 7
13 92 56 23 99 14 142 5
14 114 57 17 100 6 143 3
15 114 58 12 101 9 144 4
16 77 59 23 102 3 145 3
17 86 60 16 103 13 146 9
18 75 61 9 104 8 147 5
19 82 62 18 105 8 148 6
20 73 63 29 106 3 149 5
21 80 64 16 107 10 150 3
22 81 65 10 108 4 151 6
23 65 66 10 109 4 152 7
24 76 67 13 110 8 153 9
25 73 68 13 111 12 154 3
26 75 69 14 112 6 155 3
27 51 70 13 113 8 156 4
28 65 71 16 114 7 158 9
29 54 72 13 115 4 159 2
30 54 73 6 116 3 160 3
31 65 74 9 117 5 161 3
32 37 75 10 118 10 162 7
33 34 76 8 119 9 163 5
34 59 77 21 120 4 164 7
35 50 78 6 121 5 165 6
36 44 79 14 122 12 166 8
37 42 80 8 123 3 167 4
38 34 81 10 124 8 168 7
39 40 82 8 125 5 169 4
40 29 83 10 126 2 170 7
41 27 84 15 127 5 171 4
42 34 85 13 128 5 172 7
43 48 86 8 129 7 173 7
The above obtained data was fitted using the following exponential model,
𝑡
𝑦 = 𝑎 exp − + 𝑏
𝜏
with three parameters 𝑎, 𝜏 and 𝑏 whose fitted values are,
𝑎 = 183.8, 𝜏 = 23.13, 𝑏 = 4.773
𝑡
𝑦 = 183.8 exp − + 4.773
23.13
𝑅 2 value = 0.9539
References:
Nuclear Physics – By S. N. Ghoshal
Supplied reading material and user’s manual.