First principles studies on ordinary muon capture

Ordinary muon capture is a nuclear-weak process in which a negatively charged muon, initially bound on an atomic orbit, is captured by the atomic nucleus, resulting in atomic number reduction by one and emission of a muon neutrino. Thanks to the high momentum transfer involved in the process, it is one of the most promising probes for as yet hypothetical neutrinoless double-beta decay. With the recent renaissance of muon-capture experiments, reliable theory predictions for muon capture are now of paramount importance.

In my talk, I will discuss recent ab initio studies on muon capture on light nuclei, focusing in particular in ab initio no-core shell model (NCSM) studies. Starting from nuclear forces derived from chiral effective theory and using translationally invariant nuclear wave functions and operators brings the computed partial muon-capture rates in good agreement with available experimental counterparts, motivating future studies in the same mass region.