On the Production of Heavy Electrons

Abstract
The barytron theory of nuclear forces shows a close correspondence to the theory of the electromagnetic field. Estimates based on this analogy are given for the probabilities of the processes leading to actual production of barytrons. A comparison with the experimental evidence regarding the occurrence of barytrons in the cosmic radiation shows that the theoretical cross sections are too small to explain the properties of the hard component. The difficulty is increased by the short lifetime of the barytrons which is estimated to be of the order ∼108 sec. from radiative β-decay. Therefore no simple picture of barytron production in terms similar to radiation theory can be given. This failure, however, indicates only the inapplicability of perturbation calculations, but does not constitute an actual disproof of the link between nuclear forces and cosmic radiation.