System-level energy cost of phi-factory muon production

Determine whether producing negative muons through the $e^+e^-\to\phi(1020)$ resonance and subsequent kaon decay can reduce the total energy cost per stopped muon below that of the optimized storage-ring pion-production method, accounting for collider power, kaon capture, and muon transport losses.

Background

The paper proposes using a narrow ϕ(1020)\phi(1020) resonance as an alternative source of muons for muon-catalyzed fusion. Although the resonance and kaon decay chain offer favorable kinematics, the relevant comparison is a complete system-level energy balance. That comparison must include collider wall-plug power, the efficiency of capturing kaons, and losses during muon transport to the fusion target.

References

Whether the full system-level $e+e-\to \phi$ energy cost per stopped $\mu-$ improves over the optimized storage-ring pion-production scheme of remains an open quantitative question: There is need to consider collider wall-plug power, kaon capture efficiency, and muon transport losses.

— Science Of Nuclear Fusion: Insights and Ideas  (2609.01366 - Rafelski et al., 1 Sep 2026) in Section 4, subsection “Muon production,” paragraph “$e^+e^-$ resonance as a muon source: why $\phi(1020)$ wins”