Eur. Phys. J. D 21, 3-12 (2002)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2002-00180-5

Quasi-molecular resonances in muonic charge-exchange reactions

Department of Physics, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT 06459-0155, USA

Corresponding author: ^a rblumel@wesleyan.edu

Received: 7 January 2002
Revised: 15 April 2002
Published online: 24 September 2002

Abstract

We present the first thorough theoretical discussion of non-monotonic structure in the temporal behavior of X-ray fluorescence intensity spectra of muon charge-exchange reactions of the type . Our discussion is based on semiclassical methods; our results are almost entirely analytical. We find that the reported experimental maxima of muon charge-exchange rates are very close to the theoretical limits. We identify a new quantum mechanism, quantum impedance matching, which explains observed inelastic transitions close to the Unitarity Limit. We investigate the specific example of the reaction in detail using two-center Coulomb adiabatic potential terms. We find that quantum impedance matched higher-order partial-wave resonances yielding muon-transfer rates close to the Unitarity Limit are responsible for the remarkable non-monotonic structure in the X-ray fluorescence spectra.