Angular distributions of scattered excited muonic hydrogen atoms

Coulomb deexcitation differential cross sections of excited muonic hydrogen in collisions with hydrogen atom are studied for the first time. In the fully quantum-mechanical close-coupling approach both the differential cross sections for the $nl\to n'l'$ transitions and $l$-averaged differential cross sections have been calculated for the initial exotic atom states with $n=2-6$ at kinetic energies $E_\mathrm{cm}=0.01\text{--}15$ eV and for scattering angles $\theta_\mathrm{cm}=0\text{--}180^\circ$. The vacuum polarization shifts of the $ns$-states are taken into account. The differential cross sections of the elastic and Stark scattering obtained in the same approach are also presented. The main features of the calculated differential cross sections are discussed and a strong anisotropy of Coulomb deexcitation cross sections is predicted.