THE THEORY OF FORBIDDEN β-DECAY

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Abstract
The angular distributions of electrons and of neutrinos and the polarization of the electrons emitted by an oriented source in β-decay of arbitrary forbiddenness are calculated in terms of various angular-momentum coupling constants and of certain generalizations of the well-known combinations of electron radial wave-functions, Lv, Mv, Nv,.... The interaction Hamiltonian used encompasses all five invariants; neither parity conservation nor time-reversal invariance is assumed. A particularly simple procedure for calculating the longitudinal polarization of electrons emitted by an oriented source is pointed out. The polarization is equal to ± v/c, to good approximation, if the two-component neutrino theory holds. Explicit results for various allowed and first-forbidden effects are quoted.