Muon capture by 3 He nuclei followed by proton and deuteron production

The paper describes an experiment aimed at studying muon capture by ${}^{3}\mathrm{He}$ nuclei in pure ${}^{3}\mathrm{He}$ and ${\mathrm{D}}_{2}{+}^{3}\mathrm{He}$ mixtures at various densities. Energy distributions of protons and deuterons produced via ${\ensuremath{\mu}}^{\ensuremath{-}}{+}^{3}\mathrm{He}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}p+n+n+{\ensuremath{\nu}}_{\ensuremath{\mu}}$ and ${\ensuremath{\mu}}^{\ensuremath{-}}{+}^{3}\mathrm{He}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}d+n+{\ensuremath{\nu}}_{\ensuremath{\mu}}$ are measured for the energy intervals 10\char21{}49 MeV and 13\char21{}31 MeV, respectively. Muon capture rates ${\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{\mathrm{cap}}^{p}(\ensuremath{\Delta}{E}_{p})$ and ${\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{\mathrm{cap}}^{d}(\ensuremath{\Delta}{E}_{d})$ are obtained using two different analysis methods. The least-squares methods give ${\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{\mathrm{cap}}^{p}=(36.7\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}1.2){\mathrm{s}}^{\ensuremath{-}1},$ ${\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{\mathrm{cap}}^{d}=(21.3\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}1.6){\mathrm{s}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}.$ The Bayes theorem gives ${\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{\mathrm{cap}}^{p}=(36.8\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.8){\mathrm{s}}^{\ensuremath{-}1},$ ${\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{\mathrm{cap}}^{d}=(21.9\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.6){\mathrm{s}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}.$ The experimental differential capture rates, $d{\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{\mathrm{cap}}^{p}{(E}_{p}{)/dE}_{p}$ and $d{\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{\mathrm{cap}}^{d}{(E}_{d}{)/dE}_{d},$ are compared with theoretical calculations performed using the plane-wave impulse approximation with the realistic nearest-neighbor interaction Bonn B potential. Extrapolation to the full energy range yields total proton and deuteron capture rates in good agreement with former results.