Muon-catalyzed fusion

Muon-catalyzed fusion (abbreviated as μCF or MCF) is a process allowing nuclear fusion to take place at temperatures significantly lower than the temperatures required for thermonuclear fusion, even at room temperature or lower. It is one of the few known ways of catalyzing nuclear fusion reactions.

Muons are unstable subatomic particles which are similar to electrons but 207 times more massive. If a muon replaces one of the electrons in a hydrogen molecule, the nuclei are consequently drawn 186^[1][2] times closer than in a normal molecule, due to the reduced mass being 186 times the mass of an electron. When the nuclei move closer together, the fusion probability increases, to the point where a significant number of fusion events can happen at room temperature.

Methods for obtaining muons, however, require far more energy than can be produced by the resulting fusion reactions. Muons have a mean lifetime of 2.2 μs, much longer than many other subatomic particles but nevertheless far too brief to allow their useful storage.^[3]

To create useful room-temperature muon-catalyzed fusion, reactors would need a cheap, efficient muon source and/or a way for each individual muon to catalyze many more fusion reactions.