CALCULATIONS OF THE AUGER DEEXCITATION RATE OF DT-MU WITHIN THE MUONIC QUASI-MOLECULE (DT-MU) DEE

A key process in muon-catalyzed fusion is the deexcitation of dtmu within the resonant muonic quasimolecule (dtmu)dee, by emission of an Auger electron. The dtmu in the quasimolecule is initially in a weakly bound excited state with J = 1 and v = 1. Calculations are carried out of the rate of the dominant transition to the state with J = 0 and v = 1. Use is made of the dipole matrix element obtained for this transition by Scrinzi and Szalewicz [Phys. Rev. A 39, 2855 (1989)]. Full account is taken of the molecular nature of the quasimolecule. The continuum electronic wave functions for the Auger electron for all four contributing symmetries, i.e., SIGMA(g)+, SIGMA(u)+, PI(u), and PI(g), and PI(g), are first obtained by a two-center Coulomb calculation and a static-exchange calculation, extended to include dipole polarization. Comparison is then made with the results of a calculation in which the SIGMA(mu)+ and PI(u) wave functions are obtained as in a previous paper by Armour and Lewis [J. Phys. B 23, L25 (1990)] and the SIGMA(g)+ and PI(g) wave functions are obtained by the Kohn method. There are significant differences between the contributions from the individual symmetries, but the overall values for the deexcitation rate are all of the same order of magnitude as the results of earlier calculations.