Kinetics of excited muonic hydrogen

Abstract

Deexcitation and charge exchange of excited muonic hydrogen are considered. The inverse quasiresonant charge exchange process is taken into account. During cascade the inverse charge exchange balances the direct process down to the level with the principal quantum number n\ifmmode \tilde{}\else \~{}\fi{} for which the resonance defect is larger than the collision energy. The density of the muonic atom for n\ensuremath{\le}n\ifmmode \tilde{}\else \~{}\fi{} is then determined by deexcitation and muon transfer to nuclei of heavier hydrogen isotopes. Energy dependence of the ground-state population of the initial muonic hydrogen, ${\mathit{q}}_{1\mathit{s}}$, is considered. Comparing our results for the ${\mathit{q}}_{1\mathit{s}}$ parameter with the available experimental data, we conclude that the collision energy of the excited muonic atoms is \ensuremath{\sim}3 eV for D-T and \ensuremath{\sim}5 eV for an H-D mixture.