Recent progress in muon catalyzed fusion Original Research Article

In these several years, new discoveries have been undertaken in the μCF experiments such as (a) anomalous condensed-matter effect in both molecular formation (D2, D-T) and μ− regeneration from the alpha sticking (D-T), (b) high temperature and energetic (tμ) effect in molecular formation (D2), (c) ortho-para effect in molecular formation (D2) etc. Also significant progress has been marked in theoretical studies regarding 1) calculation of the loosely bound states of muonic molecules, 2) molecular formation rate in solid D2 and 3) description of cascade process in muonic atoms. The recent μCF researches open the way to use this phenomenon for construction of the intense 14-MeV neutron source and the effective breeder.