  The direct muon transfer from protium to neon at low collision energies is
considered. The question is discussed how the energy dependence of the transfer
rate can be extracted from available experimental data. A model is suggested
which is based on two assumptions. First, the muon transfer occurs within an
interaction sphere out of which the entrance and transfer channels are not
coupled. Secondly, for the s- and p-waves at low collision energies, the
complex logarithmic derivatives of the radial wave functions of the entrance
channel on the interaction sphere are energy-independent. With only the s-wave
taken into account, two values of the logarithmic derivative were found, which
agree with the transfer rates measured at the temperatures of 20 and 300 K.
Within this temperature interval, the rates evaluated for these two values
differ only slightly. Noticeable differences arise at temperatures of a few
kelvins. The choice of the preferred value of the logarithmic derivative was
made by the comparison of the energy dependence of the S-matrix with results of
previous calculations. Thereby, the proposed procedure may be a way to correct
calculations at low collision energies.
