Probabilities of muon induced nuclear reactions involving charged particle emission

Abstract The probabilities for the reactions (μ − , p), (μ − , pn), (μ − , p2n), (μ − , p3n) and (μ − , α) were measured by activation experiments on 18 elements from Na to Bi. The results suggest the following systematics : (i) the probability W of each type of reaction depends on the atomic number of the target and can be described by W = a exp( - bV ), where V is the Coulomb barrier of the compound nucleus for the ejected charged particle; (ii) the factor b is the same for all ( μ − , p x n) reactions and not very different for (μ − , α) reactions; (iii) the relative probabilities for ( μ − , p x n) reactions for a given target vary as 1 :6 :4 :4 for x = 0, 1, 2, 3. The experimental results are compared with a theoretical estimate of the reaction probability and with the corresponding 14 MeV neutron induced reactions.