C DeW Van Siclen 1985 J. Phys. G: Nucl. Phys. 11 267 doi:10.1088/0305-4616/11/2/013
C DeW Van Siclen
Show affiliationsBy regarding muon catalysis of nuclear fusion in a mixture of hydrogen isotopes as a series of stochastic processes. Markov chain theory is used to derive several exact analytic equations relating the rates of the various reactions and the sticking coefficients for the fusion channels. These include expressions for the mean number of pd, dd, dt, tt and pt fusion per muon, the mean total number of fusions per muon and the muon cycling rate lambda c, which reduce to the corresponding well known expressions for catalysis in a deuterium-tritium mixture. Inclusion of the fusion reaction dd mu to p mu +t provides a particularly interesting complication, as this process gives rise to a catalysis cycle that may not return a free muon to the system. The application of Markov chain theory to more complex catalysis schemes, such as those including hyperfine states of the mesic atoms and mesic molecules, is considered briefly.
25.30.Mr Muon-induced reactions (including the EMC effect)
Issue 2 (February 1985)
C DeW Van Siclen 1985 J. Phys. G: Nucl. Phys. 11 267
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