muon

Contraction of the earlier term mu-meson; the particle has now been recategorised as a lepton. Coined by Italian physicist Enrico Fermi in 1951 in his book Elementary Particles.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmjuːɒn/

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• Rhymes: -uːɒn

muon (plural muons)

1. (physics) An unstable elementary particle in the lepton family, having similar properties to the electron but with a mass 207 times greater.
   • 1951, Enrico Fermi, Elementary Particles:

     The μ-meson of Powell (called here muon) is instead a disintegration product of the pion, only weakly linked to the nucleons and therefore of little importance in the explanation of nuclear forces.

   • 1955 March, CP Sargent, “Diffusion Cloud-Chamber Study of Very Slow Mesons”, in Physical Review:

     The spectrum of electrons arising from the decay of the negative mu meson has been determined. The muons are arrested in the gas of a high pressure hydrogen filled diffusion cloud chamber.

   • 2023 August 11, Nicola Davis, “Scientists may be on brink of discovering fifth force of nature”, in The Guardian‎:

     The data comes from experiments at the Fermilab US particle accelerator facility, which explored how subatomic particles called muons – similar to electrons but about 200 times heavier – move in a magnetic field.

• anti-muon
• muogenic
• muon neutrino
• muonic

• muon on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• moun

Contraction of mu-meson

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• Hyphenation: mu‧on

muon n (plural muonen)

1. (physics) muon

muon

1. accusative singular of muo