Formation of true muonium in the Drell-Yan dimuon production

Abstract

We suggest a new mechanism for the formation of true muonium ($TM$), the QED $({\mu }^{+}{\mu }^{-})$ bound state, due to the Coulomb interaction of muons from ${\mu }^{+}{\mu }^{-}$ pairs generated in the Drell-Yan reaction of protons off nuclei of a thin foil target. The $TM$ atoms produced in the ${}^3{S}_1$ long-lived triplet state ($oTM$) could escape from the foil to vacuum followed by their decay into $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ pairs. Observation of $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ events with a displaced vertex, and an invariant mass and decay time consistent with the mass and lifetime of the $oTM$ is used as a signature of the discovery of $TM$. We present estimates of the $TM$ yield and briefly discuss an experiment which could lead to such a discovery.

Comments: 5 pages, 6 figures