Radiative Muon Capture by He-3

Abstract

The rate of the nuclear reaction $^3He+\mu^- \to ^3H+\gamma+\nu_{\mu}$ has been calculated using both the elementary particle model (EPM) approach and the impulse approximation (IA) approach. Using the EPM approach, the exclusive statistical radiative muon capture (RMC) rate for photon energy greater than 57 MeV is found to be $0.245 s^{-1}$ and the ordinary muon capture (OMC) rate to be $1503 s^{-1}$. The IA calculation exhibits a slight dependence on the type of trinucleon wave functions used. The difference between the IA and EPM calculation is larger for RMC than for OMC. To resolve the difference between the two approaches a more detailed investigation including meson exchange corrections will be required.