Abstract
As is well known, the assumption of the instability of the meson, which is included in the fundamental hypotheses of Yukawa's theory of beta-disintegration, has received a striking qualitative confirmation from investigations of the absorption of the penetrating component of the cosmic radiation1. As stressed by Nordheim2, there is, however, in the forms of the theory successively considered by Yukawa3 a serious quantitative discrepancy regarding the value of the ratio between the life-times of the free meson and of light beta-radioactive elements : the value of this ratio, calculated by using the values of the constants determined from the magnitude of the nuclear forces, turns out to be much smaller than that derived from observation. Since this discrepancy affects equally any other form of the theory involving only one of the four types of meson fields which, according to Kemmer4, are possible a priori, it may be concluded that no such form of the theory will be able to account quantitatively for the connexion between the life-time of the mesons and the beta-decay of light elements.
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References
See, for example, Euler, H., and Heisenberg W., Ergehn. d. exakten Naturwiss., 17, 1 (1938).
Nordheim, J., Phys. Rev., 55, 506 (1939).
Yukawa, H., Proc. phys.-math. Soc. Japan, 17, 46 (1935); Bhabha, H., NATURE, 141, 117 (1938); Yukawa, H., Sakata, S., Kobayasi, M., and Taketani. M., Proc. phys.-math. Soc. Japan, 20, 720 (1938).
Kemmer, N., Proc. Roy. Soc., A, 166, 127 (1938).
Moller, C., and Rosenfeld, L., NATURE, 143, 241 (1939); 144, 476 (1939).
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MOLLER, C., ROSENFELD, L. & ROZENTAL, S. Connexion between the Life-time of the Meson and the Beta-Decay of Light Elements. Nature 144, 629 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/144629a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/144629a0
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