The possibility of second-class currents in Gamow-Teller β-decay

Synopsis Mirror Gamow-Teller β-decay takes place from members of isospin multiplets to a common final state or to final states that are mirrors of each other. It is found that in these cases the intrinsic speed of the positon emission is systematically lower, by 10–15 per cent, than that of the mirror negaton emission. This difference could be due to a fundamental weak interaction effect, a second-class term in the weak hadronie current, or to a failure of exact symmetry in the nuclear structure. The influence of binding energy differences is studied in the latter context and it is concluded that they cannot be responsible for the empirical asymmetry. The effects of changes of configurational mix across the multiplets is also considered; very few estimates have ben explicitly made but it would be surprising if this effect turned out to be of constant sign and magnitude over the wide range of A involved. No present firm conclusion can be made but none of the empirical evidence is inconsistent with the reality of a largely momentum-transfer-independent second-class current.