Expanding proton dripline by employing a number of muons

Abstract

Through mean-field calculations, we demonstrate that, in a large $Z$ nucleus binding multiple muons, these heavy leptons localize within a few dozen femtometers of the nucleus. The mutual Coulomb interactions between the muons and the protons can lead to a substantial decrease in proton chemical potential, surpassing 1 MeV. These findings allow for expanding the proton-dripline on the nuclear chart in principle, suggesting the possible production of nuclei with Z around 120.