Nonadiabatic coupled-rearrangement-channel approach to muonic molecules

Abstract

A new variational approach to muonic molecules is proposed. The total three-body wave function is expanded in terms of basis functions spanned over the three rearrangement channels in the Jacobian coordinate system. Energy levels of the dt\ensuremath{\mu} molecule are calculated with a high accuracy and a short computation time. For the weakly bound state with J=v=1, which is a key to the muon-catalyzed d-t fusion, the calculated energy ${\ensuremath{\varepsilon}}_{11}$ is better than the literature data. With the use of the most up-to-date, 1986 CODATA--recommended [E. R. Cohen and B. N. Taylor, CODATA Bull. 63 (1986)] values of physical constants, we obtained ${\ensuremath{\varepsilon}}_{11}$=-0.660 264 eV with 2662 basis functions and ${\ensuremath{\varepsilon}}_{11}$(\ensuremath{\infty})=-0.66030\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}000 02 eV by extrapolation.