• DOI:10.1038/268301A0
• Corpus ID: 4173884

Measurements of relativistic time dilatation for positive and negative muons in a circular orbit

@article{Bailey1977MeasurementsOR,
  title={Measurements of relativistic time dilatation for positive and negative muons in a circular orbit},
  author={J. M. Bailey and K. Borer and F. H. Combley and H. Drumm and F. Krienen and F. Lange and Emilio Picasso and W. von Ruden and F. J. M. Farley and J. H. Field and Wilfred Flegel and P. M. Hattersley},
  journal={Nature},
  year={1977},
  volume={268},
  pages={301-305}
}

• J. Bailey, K. Borer, +9 authors P. M. Hattersley
• Published 1977
• Physics
• Nature

The lifetimes of both positive and negative relativistic (γ = 29.33) muons have been measured in the CERN Muon Storage Ring with the results τ+ = 64.419 (58) µs, τ− = 64.368 (29) µs The value for positive muons is in accordance with special relativity and the measured lifetime at rest: the Einstein time dilation factor agrees with experiment with a fractional error of 2×10−3 at 95% confidence. Assuming special relativity, the mean proper lifetime for μ− is found to be τ0− = 2.1948(10) µs the most accurate value reported to date. The agreement of this value with previously measured values of τ0+ confirms CPT invariance for the weak interaction in muon decay.