Total capture rate analysis of ¹³⁶Ba target through Ordinary Muon Capture in the MONUMENT experiment

Dhanurdhar Bajpai, The University of Alabama, for the MONUMENT collaboration- MONUMENT (Muon Ordinary capture for NUclear Matrix elemENT) measures Ordinary Muon Capture (OMC) on isotopes relevant for the neutrinoless double beta (0νββ) decay searches. The Nuclear Matrix Elements (NMEs) that relate the 0νββ decay half-life to the effective light Majorana neutrino mass, have large theoretical uncertainties. This may impact the sensitivity of next-generation searches to investigate the Majorana neutrino masses down to the claimed few tens of meV. OMC is a powerful tool to study the 0νββ-decay NMEs as it involves similar momentum transfers and allows one to experimentally probe the virtual transitions involved in the decay. OMC on ^A_Z+2X nucleus populates several excited states of a daughter nucleus ^A_Z+1Y^*. The main goal of MONUMENT is to extract the total and partial muon capture rates. The total capture rate that determines the muonic atom lifetime can be obtained by studying the time evolution of the de-excitation of the γ rays. In this talk, the total capture rate of ¹³⁶Ba will be presented. The partial capture rates to different excited states of the daughter nucleus are required for the calculation of the NMEs. The talk will conclude by summarizing the status of the partial capture rate analysis.