Muonic Atoms

[Zarnaxus]

I have been trying to increase my knowledge on the elementary particles of matter. I have already known that their are (for some odd reason) three generations of elementary particles. Each one being heavier and having more energy than the last generation. So, this brings me to the Muon, the second generation of the electron. I read about how particle accelerators have created muonic atoms. Tau based atoms are impossible, I have heard. What my question is, is if muonic atoms have similar or different chemical properties than regular electron atoms. They are obviously a lot heavier, and probably tighter together. Would muonic helium act like regular helium, or in sense, is there a completely new periodic table of muonic elements?! Maybe they can't get very big though. Maybe they only exist for fractions of a second before phasing back to their lower energy states. It is easier for me to present this question to those of you who are generous enough to respond and share your knowledge, than for me to go traipsing about the internet sifting through articles, trying to find the answers i am curious about. Muonic nuclear fusion bombs!? lol more explosion?

Edited February 26, 2011 by Zarnaxus

[swansont]

I'm not sure of a muon lives long enough to do much chemistry, or make high-Z atoms. The muon is more massive, which reduces the size of the orbitals. One might expect that to affect chemical bonds, but I'm not aware of experiments investigating such phenomena.

[mississippichem]

I'm not sure of a muon lives long enough to do much chemistry, or make high-Z atoms. The muon is more massive, which reduces the size of the orbitals. One might expect that to affect chemical bonds, but I'm not aware of experiments investigating such phenomena.

 

A just made a quick chemical literature search for muonic atoms and muonic molecules. The only chemistry I can seem to find are spectroscopy experiments were a muon is introduced into the outermost n-level then an emission spectrum is taken. I only took about five minutes to search but it seems that the muon decays shortly after.

 

I also found some useless but interesting computational studies of high-Z purely muonic atoms. The consensus seems to be that muonic molecules have trouble forming because the muons don't last long enough for the bond to fall down through the vibrational cascade after a spin pairing event.

[swansont]

I also found some useless but interesting computational studies of high-Z purely muonic atoms. The consensus seems to be that muonic molecules have trouble forming because the muons don't last long enough for the bond to fall down through the vibrational cascade after a spin pairing event.

 

Cool. I wouldn't have thought of that, but it makes sense.

[mississippichem]

Cool. I wouldn't have thought of that, but it makes sense.

 

Talk about muons and its particle physics. Stick a muon between two nuclei, evoke the Born-Oppenheimer approximation for a Hartree-Fock method and it's physical chemistry .

 

Funny how science works.

[alpha2cen]

This site states us muonic atom naming.

http://www.iupac.org/publications/pac/73/2/0377/

Edited February 27, 2011 by alpha2cen