muon
noun
mu·on ˈmyü-ˌän 
: an unstable lepton that is common in the cosmic radiation near the earth's surface, has a mass about 207 times the mass of the electron, and exists in negative and positive forms
muonic
myü-ˈä-nik
adjective 
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the Web The faster the muon or electron, the heavier the W boson that produced it. 
Charlie Wood, Quanta Magazine, 7 Apr. 2022 Enlarge / Illustration of a candidate event for a W boson decaying into one muon and one neutrino from proton-proton collisions, recorded by the Large Hadron Collider's ATLAS detector in 2018. Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 7 Apr. 2022 In particular, Kotwal and his colleagues sought out collisions that produced two specific pairs of particles: either a muon and a neutrino, or an electron and a neutrino. Jennifer Leman, Popular Mechanics, 7 Apr. 2022 This is because the rules of quantum mechanics are not consistent with the simplest kind of new force unless that force affects at least one other kind of particle besides the muon. Scientific American, 1 Feb. 2022 The endless muon rainstorm will shower the volcano at an angle. New York Times, 10 Nov. 2021 But this April, physicists announced the first results of an experiment designed specifically to chase just such an anomaly, one involving the intrinsic magnetism of a particle called the muon. Michael Moyer, Quanta Magazine, 22 Dec. 2021 Although the phenomenon of neutrino oscillation had not yet been definitively demonstrated, several earlier measurements suggested how quickly muon type neutrinos should oscillate into the other two varieties. Don Lincoln, Forbes, 27 Oct. 2021 Both sets of results involve the strange, fleeting particle called the muon. Seth Borenstein, USA TODAY, 8 Apr. 2021 See More
Charlie Wood, Quanta Magazine, 7 Apr. 2022 Enlarge / Illustration of a candidate event for a W boson decaying into one muon and one neutrino from proton-proton collisions, recorded by the Large Hadron Collider's ATLAS detector in 2018. Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 7 Apr. 2022 In particular, Kotwal and his colleagues sought out collisions that produced two specific pairs of particles: either a muon and a neutrino, or an electron and a neutrino. Jennifer Leman, Popular Mechanics, 7 Apr. 2022 This is because the rules of quantum mechanics are not consistent with the simplest kind of new force unless that force affects at least one other kind of particle besides the muon. Scientific American, 1 Feb. 2022 The endless muon rainstorm will shower the volcano at an angle. New York Times, 10 Nov. 2021 But this April, physicists announced the first results of an experiment designed specifically to chase just such an anomaly, one involving the intrinsic magnetism of a particle called the muon. Michael Moyer, Quanta Magazine, 22 Dec. 2021 Although the phenomenon of neutrino oscillation had not yet been definitively demonstrated, several earlier measurements suggested how quickly muon type neutrinos should oscillate into the other two varieties. Don Lincoln, Forbes, 27 Oct. 2021 Both sets of results involve the strange, fleeting particle called the muon. Seth Borenstein, USA TODAY, 8 Apr. 2021 See More Word History
Etymology
contraction of earlier mu-meson, from mu
First Known Use
1951, in the meaning defined above