6.1INTRODUCTION ‘The portion of the radiation, emitted from a radioactive source, that was strongly deflected by perpendicular magnetic field was termed beta-radiation. There are three modes of beta radionclvily¢ negatron (B") emission, positron (B*) emission ‘and orbital electron capture. Negatron emission is much neerammin than the other decay processes. Beta rays are easily distinguished from orparticles by their movjderably greater range in matter. When a radio-element emits a B"-particle, the product has the same consi tmber es the parent, bu its atomic number is greater by one unit. Similarly when a positron is emitted {he mass number is still unchanged but the atomic numberof product is now one unit less than that of the parent. When the ratio of neutrons to protons is low, another type of decay known as orbial electron apture process has been found to occur. In this process instead oa protor intove-neutron gM = ek M*eiostiveion+me? +0- Br-process—> $Mc? = z-{'M°c* (negative ion) + mgc* + Oye B EC-process—> $Me? = 2-{'M*c?(neutral but excited) + Qec- ee ‘The process increases the nuclear charge by one unit with number of atomic electrons unchanged. If B be the binding energy of the last atomic electron, then we have SMe? = 26 Mic? +me? -B. * Qs = $Me, Mc? -B. =) ‘The B*-process decreases the nuclear charge by one unit. The rest energy of the negative ion formed is given by zine? = 2} Mc? +mgc—B. “ Oy» = 4Mc?—z.f Mc? -2mgc? + B. =Q) ‘The Q-value of EC-process is similarly written as Qe = $Me? =z. Mc? -Ep +B, . +8) where Eis the ionization/binding energy of the atomic captured electron. ‘We have showed in chapter 1 that the hypothesis concerning the existence of eléctrons inside the nucleus is not in accord with the experimental facts. Now question arises how do we acquire beta-decaykeg Ga o2 09 as 05 G@ 07 a9 a9 10 11 12 sitet energy of he beta parts, TOV) —> Shovel where B, is the axial field at th of the Jens coil and a is the half width of the axial distribution. [eraniov pfition corresponds to that expected from the mass difference of the parent and the daughter, so an apparent failure to conserve linear. and angular momentum in B-decay. The emjstedcelf ‘not usually travel in a direction opposite to that of the product nucleus. In the ‘proces , the nuclear angular momenta of '4C and !4N are found to be 0 and 1 respectively. As the Stectro w/ intrinsic spin of %, therefore, the angular momentum cannot be conserved during Vv the transition. As far as the statistics are concerned, “4N + Bis a fermion and '*C is a boson. mneutsin All these difficulties were eliminated by Pauli in 1933 by assuming the existence of an additional f particle. This hypothetical particle is called a neutrino (litle neutral one). To preserve not only the principle | — of energy conservation but also the principle of conservation of electric charge and of angular momentum — )) and the rules governing statistics, we must ascribe certain properties to the neutrino. (i) Charge is already . conserved by the disintegration electron in f decay hence the neutrino has zero charge. (ii) In B-decay the an parent and the daughter nuclei always have the same mass number. This requires that both have the same, ,)iumB statistics and that their nuclear angular momenta may differ only by zero or an integer multiple of A/2x. As “= ———— the B-ray electron has Fermi-Dirgc statistics and a spin of 44, the neutrino must also have Fermi-Dirac statistics and an intrinsic spin of 1h in order to conserve statistics and angular momentum. (iii) Since the neutrino has a spin 4, it is therefore expected to obey the Dirac theory and in addition to a neutrino, an ‘ntiparticle, called anti-neutrino, should also exist. (iv) Just as electron is generic term used for positrons id negative electrons, neutrino is a term often used generically for a neutrino or an antineutrino: The utrino and antineutrino are represented as v and ¥ respectively. The particle anti-particle relation assigns the antineutrino the same mass, spin, charge and magnitude of magnetic moment as those of the neutrino. all processes where a neutrino is emitted, an antineutrino can be absorbed with the same result and vice ‘sa. As neutrinos have zero charge. Now question arises whether there are in fact two different neutrinos. .ositive answer to this question seems to have been given by the requirements of a doubly beta particle ‘ay. If v and 7 are not identical, the double beta decay must be accompanied by the emission of two ineutrinos. The two particles in the neutrino pair cannot differ in charge, but it appears that they do {erin the relative directions of their spin vectors. In the neutrino the spin and angular momentum vectors ‘oppositely directed and in the antineutrino these vectors are aligned together. This property gives to _ neutrino a handedness introducing a fundamental asymmetry in its behaviour. ! Since a matter anti-matter pair is formed whenever energy is converted into mass, hence in a conversion ‘a nuclear neutron to a proton, the negative electron (a member of the matter) should accompany ftineutrino (antimatter). Similarly neutrino is emitted with * emission and orbital electrén capture. Thus wee types of -decay are : Br-decay- no presy Br-decay- pontesy PR NopErery