ALTERNATIVE APPROACH TO THE DERIVATION OF AN EXPRESSION FOR THE CROSS-SECTION FOR RESONANT FORMATION OF DT-MU IN THE MOON-CATALYZED FUSION CYCLE

A key process in the muon-catalyzed fusion cycle is a low-energy colli sion of d mu or t mu with a D-2 molecule that leads, at appropriate in cident energies, to the formation of a resonant complex containing dd mu or dt mu. In this paper, a detailed description is given of a forma l calculation in which elements of Feshbach's treatment of resonances and Chan and Eraser's coupled-scattering-equations approach to positro nium formation in e(+)H scattering in the region below the first targe t excitation threshold are used to obtain an expression for the cross section for resonant dt mu formation. The result is similar to the Bre it-Wigner formula. The relationship of this expression to the expressi on used in some evaluations of this cross section is discussed.