Precision muon lifetime and capture experiments at PSI

Abstract

The muLan experiment at the Paul Scherrer Institute will measure the lifetime of the positive muon with a precision of 1 ppm, giving a value for the Fermi coupling constant G_F at the level of 0.5 ppm. Meanwhile, by measuring the observed lifetime of the negative muon in pure hydrogen, the muCap experiment will determine the rate of muon capture, giving the proton's pseudoscalar coupling g_p to 7%. This coupling can be calculated precisely from heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory and therefore permits a test of QCD's chiral symmetry.