TABLE OF CONTENTS D.Horv th
KFKI Research Institute for Particle and Nuclear Physics, H-1525 Budapest, Hungary, and Institute of Nuclear Research (ATOMKI), H-4001 Debrecen, Hungary
In exotic atoms one of the atomic electrons is replaced by a negatively charged particle, whereas muonium consists of a positive muon and an electron. After a general review of the theoretical and experimental aspects the present knowledge of this field is summarized. These include muonium and the application of the muon spin resonance method in solid state physics and chemistry, muonic hydrogen atoms, muonic molecules and muon catalyzed fusion, pionic hydrogen atoms and their use in chemistry, testing quantum electrodynamics on heavy muonic atoms, measuring particle and nuclear properties using hadronic atoms and testing basic symmetry principles with antiprotonic helium atoms and antihydrogen.
When a particle with a negative charge and long enough lifetime slows down and stops in matter, it replaces an atomic electron and gets bound on an atomic orbit. The exotic atoms formed this way are named after the constituent particle: the most common ones are presented in TABLE 1. According to the particle we speak about muonic, pionic, kaonic, antiprotonic or sometimes mesonic or hadronic atoms.
| Particle | Spin (?) | Lifetime (s) | m |
|---|
