Nuclear disintegration of some complex nuclei by 60-MeV muons

Cross sections for muodisintegration reactions (μ+-,μ+-xN) at T/sub μ/=60 MeV on eight nuclei from 12C to 203Tl have been measured by activation techniques. The cross sections, like those for comparable electron reactions, increase with target mass number. An additional measurement with 30-MeV μ+ on 12C shows a positive energy dependence. The observation that sigma(μ+,μ+xn)<sigma(μ-,μ-xn) for heavy nuclei implies the presence of Coulomb distortion of the muon trajectories. Calculations employing the virtual photon method in the plane-wave Born approximation, together with reported photonuclear cross sections, give good agreement with the 12C(μ,μ'n)11C results, but not with those for higher-Z nuclei