Towards a better understanding of O nuclear structure: Muon capture and radiative pion capture reactions

Muon capture and radiative pion capture reactions on ¹⁶O have been analysed with the aim to extract more information on the importance of higher components of the A = 16 nuclear ground and excited states. Good agreement with the experimental data for both reactions may be achieved if at least 2p2h components of the nuclear wave functions are taken into account. The positive parity excited states in ¹⁶N are shown to contribute 43 % to the radiative π⁻ capture but only ≈ 10 % to the muon capture rate.