QUADRUPOLE CORRECTIONS TO MATRIX-ELEMENTS OF TRANSITIONS IN RESONANT REACTIONS OF MUONIC MOLECULE FORMATION

The calculated resonant formation rates of the muonic molecules dd mu and dt mu are presented. The approach developed earlier for calculatin g the transition matrix elements in the dipole approximation has been extended to include the quadrupole terms in the multipole expansion of the interaction operator. The calculated dependence of the dt mu form ation rates on the energies of the incident t mu muonic atoms shows th at the effect of including the quadrupole correction is to reduce the magnitude of the peak rates by about 20-30% at the different temperatu res, compared to those calculated in the dipole approximation. The dep endence on temperature for the dd mu formation rates is obtained with the differences between the presented and previous calculations being less than 5%.