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U.S. Department of Energy
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APPLICATION OF DISPERSION AND PERTURBATION THEORETIC TECHNIQUES TO THE STUYD OF THE RADIATIVE CORRECTIONS TO WEAK INTERACTIONS AND THE CONSERVED $delta$S = 0 VECTOR CURRENT THEORY

Thesis/Dissertation ·
OSTI ID:4726604
The electromagnetic radiative corrections to muon and nucleon decay are studied using both dispersion and perturbation theoretic techniques. An analysis is made of disagreements in the earlier published results, and their differences are removed and accounted for. Various sources of ambiguity and possible improvements are investigated. Particular attention is given to the modifications of the weak vertex and the electromagnetic vertices due to the strong interactions, and it is shown that the answer is almost completely insensitive to the model of nucleon electromagnetic structure chosen to treat the final state electron-proton scattering. The gage properties of the solution are examined, and these are used to exclude a possible dependence upon the difference between It is shown that the perturbation theory amplitude has the required analytic character in the cut plane for dispersion relations to be valid by analytically continuing it into the inelastic scattering region, where its discontinuity across the cut is evaluated and shown to be identical with the corresponding absorptive part calculated from unitarity. It is concluded that the source of the discrepancy between theory and experiment for the muon lifetime, based on the Conserved Vector Current Theory, must be sought in the structure of the weak vertex. It is shown that the implications of the CVC theory regarding the modifications of the structure of the weak vertex due to the strong interactions require that photons be emitted from it, and that these may have an amplitude of the proper magnitude and sign so that the radiative corrections to nucleon decay become very small. The muon lifetime discrepancy would then no longer be alarming. (Dissertation Abstr.)
Research Organization:
Originating Research Org. not identified
NSA Number:
NSA-17-022520
OSTI ID:
4726604
Country of Publication:
Country unknown/Code not available
Language:
English