Energy spectra of both protons and deuterons emitted following the capture of negative muons by ${}_{}{}^3{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{He}$ nuclei have been measured for energies above 15 MeV. A limited number of proton-neutron pairs emitted in coincidence were also observed. A simple plane wave impulse approximation (PWIA) model calculation yields fair agreement with the measured proton energy spectra, but underpredicts the measured rate of deuteron production above our energy threshold by a large factor. A more sophisticated PWIA calculation for the two-body breakup channel, based on a realistic three-body wave function for the initial state, is closer to the deuteron data at moderate energies, but still is significantly lower near the kinematic end point. The proton-neutron coincidence data also point to the presence of significant strength involving more than one nucleon in the capture process at high energy transfer. These results indicate that additional terms in the capture matrix element beyond the impulse approximation contribution may be required to explain the experimental data. Specifically, the inclusion of nucleon-nucleon correlations in the initial or final state and meson exchange current contributions could bring calculations into better agreement with our data. A fully microscopic calculation would thus open the possibility for a quantitative test of multinucleon effects in the weak interaction.

• Received 27 December 1993

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.50.1771