Tests for Second-Class Currents in Nuclear Beta Decay

Abstract

Semileptonic interactions with anomalous, i.e., "second-class," $G$-parity properties are uniquely correlated with certain characteristic terms in the amplitude for $\beta$ decay between members of a common isotopic multiplet. The observational effects associated with second-class currents are worked out for several features of the $\beta$-decay spectrum as well as for $\beta -\gamma$ correlation phenomena.