The universe is composed of various elementary particles that perform great tasks for the well-being of the various planets. Today I will have the opportunity to share and talk to you about one of these particles, the muons To be more specific, I'll also mention everything related to them, their origin, concept, and many relevant details that will undoubtedly be of great interest to all lovers of physics, chemistry, and the universe.
What are Muons?
The Muons are those particles not built from other particles, that is, they are elementary particles. This means that they do not break down into other particles. They do not exist statically in the universe, since their existence is very fleeting (2,2 microseconds) and today they are only found in cosmic rays and in laboratories.
History of the Muons
The Muons were the first elementary particles detected that did not concern conventional atoms. In this sense, they were manifested by the American physicist Carl D. Anderson in 1936 while he was experimenting with cosmic radiation, when he discovered the presence of particles that curved when passing through an electromagnetic field in a different way from electrons and other particles presented, with a intermediate curvature between the electron and the proton.
Similarly, he presumed that the electric charge it was equal to that of the electron and its intermediate mass between both, reason why it was cited at the beginning as ''mesotron''. However, when new intermediate particles emerged later, which assumed the generic name of mesons, it was necessary to diversify such a particle, which came to be called µ-meson.
Likewise, the µ-meson eloquently disagreed with other mesons; its disintegration originated an electron and a pair of neutrinos (neutrino and antineutrino), contrary to what had been evidenced in other mesons, which formed only one (either neutrino or antineutrino).
In addition, the other mesons were thought to be hadrons, that is, particles made up of quarks and therefore entering the strong nuclear interaction made up of two quarks. Despite this fact, muons were later revealed to be elementary particles (leptons) without quark structure, equivalent to electrons, so the designation meson was dropped and it was renamed muon.
On the other hand, in 1960 it was revealed that the antimuon which could replace the proton in an atom, when finding out the muonium atoms, in which a electron orbits around an antimuon (positively charged muon). Atom that decomposes rapidly (2 µs) yielding one electron and two neutrinos.
6 Important Facts About Muons
It is important to know about elementary particles, and more if they are not very common like the Muons.
1. Discovery
In 1936, physicist Carl Anderson was experiencing the cosmics rays and cataloging the detected particles. All of them matched those known so far, except one.
2. Negatively Charged Particle
The physicist observed a negatively charged particle, like the electron, but much heavier, about two hundred times heavier, tentatively.
3. Nobel Prize
In 1936, physicist Carl Anderson received the Nobel Prize for discovering the positron and that same year he found a new particle.
4. Mesotron
After many studies, a particle emerged that would change its name several times. At first, since it was heavier than the electron but lighter than the proton, and the name mesotron was assigned to it, using its Greek root term meso-, “middle”, as its mass was between those of the other two particles.
5. Mesons
Later, however, other particles with a mass intermediate between the electron and the proton were revealed, and they were all called mesons. To differentiate this one from the others, it was designated μ meson (meson mu), by the Greek "m", since it had been the first "middle" particle.
6. Muons
Subsequently, the name of Meson μ since it was different from all the others in a very important aspect, among others, that is, it was an elementary particle, and the others were not. In the end, mesons were defined as hadrons made up of two quarks, so that the μ meson was not really a meson, just as it was not a boson like the other mesons. The “mu particle” came to be known as muon, to the present.
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4 Characteristics of Muons
Unique Qualities of Muons
1. Elemental Particle
El muon is an elementary particle, that is, it is not made up of anything simpler, it is very similar to the electron.
2. Has Half-Integer Spin
The muon has half-integer spin, that is, it is a fermion, just like the electron.
3. Strong Nuclear Force
The Muons do not feel the nuclear force strong, so that it cannot belong to the nucleus of atoms.
4. Not Static
The muon is not a static particle, that is, it is very fleeting.
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2 Differences Between Muons and Electrons
There are only two differences between Muons and electrons, these are:
1. Mass
Muons are about two hundred times heavier than electrons.
2. The Muon Is Not Stable
The second is that, unlike the electron, the muon It is not stable. Muons are much more fleeting, that is, their half-life is only 2 microseconds. That's why we don't see muons everywhere, and that's why there are electrons in atoms and not muons.
Muons tend to be cataloged as a unstable super-electron. It is important to note that when they decay they usually do so into an electron, an electron anti-neutrino and a muon neutrino.
Where do muons come from?
Muons arise from many contexts. That is, for create a muon First of all, a gigantic amount of energy is required. In fact, there is no nuclear resistance on Earth that produces muons.
However, there are very few Muons that can be close to humans and are produced when cosmic rays reach the atmosphere. Cosmic rays are largely made up of high energy protons.
So much so that, when they collide with the nuclei of the atoms from the atmosphere, generate showers of exotic particles, such as the pions proposed by Yukawa. These pions last a very short time and, after walking only a few meters, decompose into muons and neutrinos.
On the other hand, scientists, of course, do not want to rely on the randomness of events. cosmics rays and their entry into the atmosphere to originate muons, in other words, they create them themselves. They activate hadrons at high speeds and make them collide with other hadrons, causing pions to decay and thus obtaining muons at will.
Can Muons Form Atoms?
Muons can form atoms but they tend to be short-lived. In fact, these atoms exist, for much less than a second, but hey, if they show up. For example, a proton with a muon (instead of an electron), it is a more massive variety of hydrogen. Something like a very short-lived isotope of hydrogen, which physicists cite as muonium, and even has a symbol, Mu.
These strange atoms persist just like Muons, of course, so you're not going to see muonium out there, but they are used in some spectroscopic methods.
In conclusion, although the Muons are elementary particles that very rarely are among us, remember that there are atoms that are made up of these and there are atoms everywhere.
