Feasibility of Low-Energy True Muonium Photoproduction
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2026
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| _version_ | 1866911690451320832 |
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| author | Schulthess, Ivo Oberhauser, Benjamin Banto Crivelli, Paolo |
| author_facet | Schulthess, Ivo Oberhauser, Benjamin Banto Crivelli, Paolo |
| contents | True muonium, the bound state of a muon and an antimuon, is a theoretically well-understood but experimentally unobserved exotic atom. Its purely leptonic nature makes it a sensitive probe for bound-state quantum electrodynamics and possible physics beyond the Standard Model. We present a feasibility study of low-energy true muonium production via near-threshold photoproduction on a fixed target. The study includes simulations of the signal and dominant background processes, estimates of the required photon fluxes, and an overview of possible gamma sources. We show that the proposed Gamma Factory at CERN could provide the necessary photon energies and rates for the production of true muonium. Furthermore, cut-based selections are shown to suppress the background below the expected signal level. Finally, we discuss possible physics opportunities beyond the first observation, including measurements of its lifetime, hyperfine splitting, and Lamb shift. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_16557 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Feasibility of Low-Energy True Muonium Photoproduction Schulthess, Ivo Oberhauser, Benjamin Banto Crivelli, Paolo High Energy Physics - Experiment True muonium, the bound state of a muon and an antimuon, is a theoretically well-understood but experimentally unobserved exotic atom. Its purely leptonic nature makes it a sensitive probe for bound-state quantum electrodynamics and possible physics beyond the Standard Model. We present a feasibility study of low-energy true muonium production via near-threshold photoproduction on a fixed target. The study includes simulations of the signal and dominant background processes, estimates of the required photon fluxes, and an overview of possible gamma sources. We show that the proposed Gamma Factory at CERN could provide the necessary photon energies and rates for the production of true muonium. Furthermore, cut-based selections are shown to suppress the background below the expected signal level. Finally, we discuss possible physics opportunities beyond the first observation, including measurements of its lifetime, hyperfine splitting, and Lamb shift. |
| title | Feasibility of Low-Energy True Muonium Photoproduction |
| topic | High Energy Physics - Experiment |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.16557 |