Repolarization of Negative Muons by Polarized $^{209}$Bi Nuclei

A large $mu^-$ polarization was achieved in muonic Bi atoms with the help of the strong hyperfine field in a polarized nuclear target. Using $^{209}$Bi nuclei polarized to ($59pm9$)% in ferromagnetic BiMn, we observed a $mu$-$e$ decay asymmetry of ($13.1pm3.9$)%, which gives $mu^-$ polarization per nuclear polarization equal to $-1.07pm 0.35$. This value is almost consistent with $-0.792$ calculated for nuclei with spin $I= frac{9}{2}$ and a positive magnetic moment under the assumption that the hyperfine interaction becomes effective in the lowest muonic states.