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Muon Discovery and its Properties
- In the Standard Model, muon is the second generation charged lepton.
- The muon was discovered in cosmic rays by Anderson and Neddermeyer in 1936 [1].
- Initially, the muon was mistakenly identified as the Yukawa meson
Muon and the Weak Interaction
- Muons are produced through π , K decay.
- Muon subsequently decay into an electron and neutrinos.
- Weak interaction violates parity.
- Muons from π , K decay are highly polarized.
- High-energy electrons are emitted preferably in muon spin direction.
- The asymmetry of the electrons is energy-dependent.
Muon and the Building of the Standard Model
- The parity problem has been questioned by Lee and Yang [3].
- The violation was soon observed in the decay of Cobalt-60 and the muon [4].
- The observation helps establish the V-A theory, a basis for weak interaction in the standard model [5].
References
- Anderson, C.D. & Neddermeyer, S.H., Phys. Rev. 50, 263 (1936)
- Lattes, C., Occhialini, G., Powell, Nature 159, 694-697 (1947)
- T.D., Lee & C.N.,Yang, Phys. Rev. 104, 254 (1957)
- Garwin, R.L., Lederman, L.M. & Marcel, W., Phys. Rev. 105,1415 (1957)
- Roberts, B.L., J. Phys. Soc. Jpn., 76, 111009 (2007)