An Overview of the MUSE Experiment

The MUon Scattering Experiment (MUSE) was inspired by the "Proton Radius Puzzle" (PRP). The PRP came about when in 2010, the electric charge radius of the proton was extracted via μ spectroscopy to be ~ 0.842 ± 0.001 fm, which represents a deviation of ∼ 5σ from electron based extractions at the time. Possible explanations include questions of lepton universality, differences in the handling of radiative corrections or underestimated systematic uncertainties in the experiments or in the extraction of the radius from the data. MUSE aims to shed light on this puzzle via simultaneous ep and μp scattering at both charge polarities. MUSE is housed at the πM1 beam line at the Paul Scherrer Institute, which is a mixed beam of e, μ and π. As well, MUSE has the unique capability to directly test lepton universality and the two-photon exchange effect. An overview of MUSE and its current status will be discussed.