- Access by Xinjiang University
Proposed Test of Charge-Conjugation Invariance in Positronium Decay
Phys. Rev. D 4, 122 – Published 1 July, 1971
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.4.122
Abstract
If the electromagnetic interactions are invariant under charge conjugation, , then singlet positronium (Ps) can only decay into an even number of photons, while triplet Ps can only decay into an odd number of photons. In this paper we consider a model Hamiltonian which violates invariance but conserves parity. If is the coupling constant in the proposed -noninvariant interaction, then the branching ratio of the forbidden decay, , to the allowed decay, , has been found to be .
An experimental upper limit on would provide a novel check of invariance in electromagnetic interactions, and would also yield new information on the interaction. At present, indirect limits on show it to be less than about . We are now working on an experiment which is designed to reduce this upper limit to -. If successful, it will subject the proposed interaction, or any similar interaction leading to , to a stringent test. An outline of the experiment is included in this paper.
References (12)
- S. DeBenedetti and H. C. Corben, Ann. Rev. Nucl. Sci. 4, 191 (1954)
- C. N. Yang, Phys. Rev. 77, 242 (1950)
- A. P. Mills and S. Berko, Phys. Rev. Letters 18, 420 (1967) A. P. Mills, thesis, Brandeis University, 1967 (unpublished)
- (a) A. Ore and J. L. Powell, Phys. Rev. 75, 1696 (1949) (b) B. G. Duff and F. F. Heymann, Proc. Roy. Soc. (London) A270, 517 (1962)
- (a) R. Paulin and G. Ambrosino, J. Phys. (Paris) 29, 263 (1968) (b) W. Brandt and R. Paulin, Phys. Rev. Letters 21, 193 (1968)
- S. L. Blatt, J. Mahieux, and D. Kohler, Nucl. Instr. Methods 60, 221 (1968)
- F. Mandl and T. H. R. Skyrme, Proc. Phys. Soc. (London) A215, 497 (1952) J. M. Jauch and F. Rohrlich, Theory of Photons and Electrons (Addison-Wesley, Cambridge, Mass., 1955), 1st ed., Sec. 11.2
- K. Marko, private communication
- K. I. Roulston and S. I. H. Naqvi, Nucleonics Data Sheet 21, 1964
- R. Hagedorn, Relativistic Kinematics (Benjamin, New York, 1964), 1st ed., Chap. 7
- G. C. McCoyd, Ph.D. thesis, St. Johns University, N. Y., 1965 (unpublished)
- F. G. Fumi and L. Wolfenstein, Phys. Rev. 90, 498 (1953)