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  • Open Access

Vacuum Muon Decay and Interaction with Laser Pulses

B. King* and D. Liu†

  • *Contact author: b.king@plymouth.ac.uk
  • †Contact author: di.liu@plymouth.ac.uk
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 251802 – Published 17 December, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/823w-2g4b

Abstract

Muons decay in vacuum mainly via the leptonic channel to an electron, a muon neutrino and an electron antineutrino. Previous investigations have concluded that muon decay can be significantly altered only in a strong electromagnetic field when the muonic strong-field parameter is of order unity, which is far beyond the reach of lab-based experiments at current and planned facilities. In this Letter, an alternative mechanism is presented in which a laser pulse affects the vacuum decay rate of a muon outside the pulse. Quantum interference between the muon decaying with or without interacting with the pulse generates fringes in the electron momentum spectra and can increase the muon lifetime by up to a factor 2. The required parameters to observe this effect are available in experiments today.

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 251802– Published 17 December, 2025
  • Received 28 July 2025
  • Revised 23 October 2025
  • Accepted 26 November 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

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