Nuclear level excitation during charge nonconservation

The possibility of nuclei being excited during charge nonconservation was investigated. The process studied is analogous to nuclear K capture which does not change a nucleon’s charge state but which does leave the nucleus in an excited state. We searched for γ rays emitted by ${}_{}{}^{127}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{I}$ nuclei and detected in a 25.4 cm×20.3 cm diam NaI(Tl) counter. Our most conservative limit for the charge nonconserving lifetime ${\tau }_{\mathrm{CNC}}$ for this mechanism is ${\tau }_{\mathrm{CNC}\ge 1.9\times {10}^{21}}$ yr. The results can be used to place limits on the charge nonconservation mechanism in weak interactions where a neutrino replaces an electron in the (e,e) current, and where a proton replaces a neutron in the (p,n) current.