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Mass and Mean Life-Time of the Meson

Abstract

ACCORDING to the new field theory of nuclear forces and β-decay, the mesotron with the chargeâe (or + e) can transform into a negative (or a positive) electron and an antineutrino (or a neutrino) even in vacuum, the mean life-time of the former due to this process being proportional to the energy1. In previous papers2, the proper life-time 0, that is, the mean life-time at rest, of the mesotron was calculated by assuming the interaction of it with the light particle, which was equivalent to that in Fermi's theory of β-decay. The result was where g is a small constant with the dimension of the charge, mU the proper mass of the mesotron and λ1, μ1 are dimensionless constants of the order of 1. Thus we obtained a value by taking mU = 200 m, gâ = 4 × 10–17, λ1 = μ1 = 1. Similar calculations were made for the case equivalent to the Konopinski-Uhlenbeck theory of Î2-decay, but the value of Ï0 thus obtained was smaller by a factor of the order (m/mU)2 than (1).

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References

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YUKAWA, H., SAKATA, S. Mass and Mean Life-Time of the Meson. Nature 143, 761–762 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/143761a0

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