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For example, so-called secondary muons, created by cosmic rays hitting the atmosphere, can penetrate the atmosphere and reach Earth's land surface and even into deep mines. Because muons have a greater mass and energy than the decay energy of radioactivity, they are not produced by radioactive decay.
The heavier muons and taus will rapidly change into electrons and neutrinos through a process of particle decay: the transformation from a higher mass state to a lower mass state. Thus electrons are stable and the most common charged lepton in the universe , whereas muons and taus can only be produced in high-energy collisions (such as those ...
The majority of the muons continue to bond with other hydrogen isotopes and continue fusing nuclei together. However, not all of the muons are recycled: some bond with other debris emitted following the fusion of the nuclei (such as alpha particles and helions), removing the muons from the catalytic process. This gradually chokes off the ...
Others decay into photons, subsequently producing electromagnetic cascades. Hence, next to photons, electrons and positrons usually dominate in air showers. These particles as well as muons can be easily detected by many types of particle detectors, such as cloud chambers, bubble chambers, water-Cherenkov, or scintillation detectors. The ...
Neutral pions, , decay by the electroweak interaction into pairs of oppositely spinning photons, which fuel the electromagnetic component of the shower. Charged pions, , preferentially decay into muons and (anti)neutrinos via the weak interaction. The same holds true for charged and neutral kaons.
Charged pions most often decay into muons and muon neutrinos, while neutral pions generally decay into gamma rays. The exchange of virtual pions, along with vector, rho and omega mesons, provides an explanation for the residual strong force between nucleons.
Other muonic atoms can be formed when negative muons interact with ordinary matter. [4] The muon in muonic atoms can either decay or get captured by a proton. Muon capture is very important in heavier muonic atoms, but shortens the muon's lifetime from 2.2 μs to only 0.08 μs. [4]
muon capture, which pervades at depths a few meters below the subsurface because muons are inherently less reactive; in some cases, high-energy muons can reach greater depths [7] neutron capture , which due to the neutron's low energy are captured into a nucleus, most commonly by water, [ clarification needed ] but this process is highly ...