PRESENT STATUS OF THE INVESTIGATION ON MUON TRANSFER IN GASEOUS-MIXTURES OF HYDROGEN AND OXYGEN

To investigate the energy dependence of muon transfer to oxygen, we pe rformed measurements in gaseous mixtures of hydrogen and oxygen. The t ime distributions of the muonic oxygen X-rays showed the same structur e as the one observed earlier in H-2 + SO2 mixtures. In the delayed pa rt of these distributions, one can distinguish a short-time and a long -time component. From the latter, we deduced the transfer rates from t hermalized muonic protium, respectively deuterium, to oxygen. The shor t-time component can be interpreted as being due to muon transfer from epithermal muonic hydrogen atoms. The time parameters are characteris tic for the deceleration process as well as for energy-dependent trans fer rates. With results of recent research on the formation and the th ermalization of muonic hydrogen, we performed Monte Carlo simulations in order to test the hypothesis of an energy-dependent transfer rate.