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Fermi theory of beta decay

This is a classic calculation of a decay constant.

We consider an allowed Fermi transition (so we do not consider angular momentum changes). The calculation will be done for ordinary tex2html_wrap_inline2061 decay; the modifications for tex2html_wrap_inline2065 decay are trivial. Electron capture is treated separately (well, is left as an exercise).

The decay constant tex2html_wrap_inline2117 is given by Fermi's Golden Rule (Number 2):

displaymath2111

where tex2html_wrap_inline2119 . Thus we need to caclulate (i) a matrix element which couples the initial and final states, and (ii) a phase space factor which describes the volume of phase space available for the outgoing leptons. Note that we need to use relativistic mechanics, as the (anti)neutrino is always relativistic, and usually tex2html_wrap_inline2121 .





Physics Department
Wed Nov 6 08:30:28 GMT+0200 1996